The day that shook Japan | Japan Herald

The day that shook Japan

Japan Herald (IANS) Tuesday 13th March, 2012

A massive earthquake rocked Japan's northeast March 11 last year, triggering a colossal tsunami that surged inland causing carnage in coastal cities unseen in this nation since World War II.

Within an hour of the initial quake hit, tidal waves more than 10 meters in height breached sea defences and tossed cars, boats and trains around like toys, levelled buildings and washed away everything in its path.

As of Friday, the official toll was 15,854, with more than 3,167 people still unaccounted for. But the unfolding catastrophe did not end with just the quake and tsunami, said Xinhua.

As the sea floor off the Tohoku coast shifted violently and unleashed the force of a magnitude-9.0 quake, the fourth largest in the world since 1900, the resulting torrent of water breached the primary and secondary defences of a coastal nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, located 240 km northeast of Tokyo.

The vital cooling functions at the No.1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima were knocked out as the facilities' basement housing key equipment quickly became inundated.

Just four hours after the tsunami hit the nuclear plant, the Japanese government feared the damage to the reactors was so severe that a full meltdown was possible and the then prime minister Naoto Kan was on the brink of issuing an emergency evacuation order for Tokyo.

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