Fukushima: Japan’s Tsunami and the Inside Story of the Nuclear Meltdowns (Mark Willacy, Macmillan)

ABC journalist Mark Willacy won a Walkley Award for his coverage of the 2011 tsunami and subsequent nuclear disasters in Japan. In the years since he has conducted interviews with key figures in the government and the nuclear power industry, as well as survivors and some of the tens of thousands of ‘nuclear refugees’ unable to return to their homes. The resulting powerful and often heartbreaking book tells the story of that terrible day and its aftermath, and explains how human folly contributed to the world’s costliest natural disaster. Willacy gives immediacy to his story by focussing on the experiences of individuals. He skilfully weaves the tragic stories of ordinary people with the actions of the Japanese Prime Minister, the energy company executives and the power plant manager who asked his heroic staff to write their names on a whiteboard so that they would be memorialised if they were all killed. Some of the survivors’ stories are almost too painful to read, but the worst part of the book is the evidence that much of the disaster was man-made and could have been avoided. Willacy combines engaging, empathetic storytelling with astute investigative journalism. This is a very important one for anyone interested in today’s Japan.

Dave Martus is the manager of Dymocks Neutral Bay in Sydney