Japan Disaster Topics

Democracy Now! reports on the disaster in Japan following a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis.

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  • Nuclear Accident in Japan

    Japanese experts said today that a nuclear chain reaction at the site of Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident has halted for now, while the government said that it is ashamed it happened at all.
    Oct 01, 1999 | Story

  • Nuclearizing the World/Breaking the Nuclear Taboo in Japan

    Japan set off wave of international concern last week when its chief cabinet secretary told reporters the country is considering breaking with its half-century-old policy banning nuclear weapons.
    Jun 11, 2002 | Story

  • Hiroshima Cover-up: Stripping the War Department's Timesman of His Pulitzer

    This weekend marks the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. William Laurence, the New York Times reporter who covered the bombings, was also on the US government payroll. Journalists Amy Goodman and David Goodman call for the Pulitzer Board to strip Laurence and his paper, The New York Times, of the undeserved prize. [includes rush transcript]
    Aug 05, 2005 | Story

  • "For the 64th Time: No More Nuclear War" - A Roundtable Discussion on Disarmament

    Sixty-four years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we host a roundtable discussion on the present nuclear landscape. We speak with nuclear physicist and disarmament activist Pervez Hoodbhoy, peace activist Frida Berrigan, and Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Over the next year, Ellsberg will release regular installments of his insider’s memoir of the nuclear era, "The American Doomsday Machine."...
    Aug 10, 2009 | Story
  • Okinawaweb

    From Japan to Guam to Hawai'i, Activists Resist Expansion of US Military Presence in the Pacific

    In Japan, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama sparked outrage this weekend when he announced he has decided to keep an American air base on the island of Okinawa. Before last year’s historic election victory, Hatoyama had vowed to move the base off of Okinawa or even out of Japan. On Sunday, he said he had decided to relocate the base to the north side of the island, as originally agreed upon with the US. Hatoyama’s decision was met with anger on...
    May 24, 2010 | Story
  • Japan2

    Japan Struck by One of Biggest Earthquakes in Recorded History, Tsunamis Threaten Pacific Basin

    Japan has been hit with a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest ever recorded. The quake triggered a 10-meter-high tsunami along Japan’s northern coastline, and nations and island states throughout the Pacific Ocean Basin are on alert for rising sea waters as the tsunami travels out from the epicenter. Police and local officials report at least 200 people were initially killed, but the death toll is expected to rise significantly....
    Mar 11, 2011 | Story
  • Japan

    Japan Facing Biggest Catastrophe Since Dawn of Nuclear Age

    Japan remains in a state of emergency three days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the country. An estimated 10,000 people have died, and Japan is facing the worst nuclear crisis since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Monday, a second explosion hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and a third reactor lost its cooling system, raising fears of a meltdown. Radiation levels have been detected as far as 100 miles away....
    Mar 14, 2011 | Story
  • Nukebutton

    “This Could Become Chernobyl on Steroids”: Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen on Japan’s Growing Nuclear Crisis

    Japan is on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe after a third explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged by Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The blast seriously damaged the plant’s Number Two reactor’s steel containment structure, causing nearby radiation levels to rise to 100 times the legal limit for exposure in a year. Plant workers “were manually opening valves into these...
    Mar 15, 2011 | Story
  • Shumlinbutton

    Vermont Gov. Fights to Close Vermont Yankee, One of 23 U.S. Nuclear Power Facilities Nearly Identical to Failed Japanese Plant

    One day before the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and sparked a nuclear crisis, the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission announced it would renew the license for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Vermont state legislators had voted to close the plant when its license expires in 2012. The 38-year-old facility has had a series of radioactive tritium leaks and is almost identical to the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan. “My heart obviously...
    Mar 15, 2011 | Story
  • Kidbutton

    "Get the Children Away from the Reactors": Japan Urged to Expand Evacuation Area Around Nuclear Plants as Leaking Radiation Spreads

    Japanese anti-nuclear activist Aileen Mioko Smith and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen question whether Japanese officials are doing enough to protect civilians from radiation, including proper monitoring and widening the evacuation zones. Some 70,000 residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, and another 140,000 people have been ordered not to step outside. “You can’t protect the people from reality,” Smith says. And Gundersen...
    Mar 15, 2011 | Story