After the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, much of the foreign press focused on what it dubbed the "Fukushima 50" — a small band of workers whose life-or-death actions prevented a catastrophic meltdown.
On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, by Ryusho Kadota, Translated by Simon Varnam.287 pagesKURODAHAN PRESS, Nonfiction.
Author Ryusho Kadota interviewed many of these frontline workers (which he found to number 69, not 50). He also spoke with Fukushima No. 1 plant manager Masao Yoshida, who headed the emergency response team, and former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took an active — and controversial — role in the government's reaction to the disaster.