Most of the reliable reporting about the clean-up of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since it suffered three meltdowns in March 2011 has been from on-site workers. Even when articles appear in major media outlets about the situation at the crippled reactor, it's usually presented through the anonymous or pseudonymous firsthand experiences of the men on the front lines.

Some have become famous. The public would not know much about the situation without Kazuto Tatsuta's manga series, "Ichiefu" (or "1F" — shorthand for "Fukushima No. 1"), the writings of former letter carrier and cleanup worker Minoru Ikeda, or the books and tweets of a man known as "Happy" who has been working as an employee at the plant.

Because these individuals directly address what they and their colleagues have gone through on a daily basis, the work they do has been de-romanticized. It's not as heroic as initial foreign media reports made it out to be. If anything, it's tedious and uncomplicated.