A Diet panel investigating the causes of the nuclear crisis recently interviewed key politicians who responded to the early stage of the emergency, bringing a long-unanswered question back into the spotlight: Did Tokyo Electric Power Co. really want to pull all of its workers out of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant?

Tepco has repeatedly denied the allegation, but all of the top-ranking officials handling the disaster at the time — including then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and industry minister Banri Kaieda — believed the utility was trying to abandon the plant.

If the power station had been left with no staff, all six reactors and seven spent fuel pools would have eventually suffered meltdowns, releasing vast radioactive fallout — probably far in excess of the 1986 Chernobyl accident — and contaminating much of eastern Japan.