"Rob Gilhooly has written what is probably the most comprehensive English-language account yet of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Gilhooly is among the best-informed foreign reporters on this issue in Japan, having travelled to Fukushima several dozen times since being one of the first journalists to arrive in the prefecture on a freezing night in March 2011. He gives the story of Masao Yoshida, perhaps the key figure in the disaster, all the detail, sympathy and pathos it demands. His remarkable pictures throughout the book are a bonus. Highly recommended. "
— David McNeil, The Economist. "Gilhooly writes from the eye of the storm, putting the reader in the plant’s control room with almost claustrophobic immediacy." — Nicolas Gattig, The Japan Times. (Full review here) |
In Yoshida's Dilemma, Rob Gilhooly, a long-term resident of Japan who has worked extensively as a journalist and photojournalist, has assembled a wealth of material, ranging from the reminiscences of the then Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, to the stories of those who worked to save the nation from disaster when the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
This real-life thriller concentrates on Masao Yoshida, the director of the plant, who inspired his "troops" to risk their lives as they battled the invisible enemy of radiation, but also tells of those living nearby, who were forced to give up their homes and lifestyles which had been enjoyed by their families for generations, as power companies and bureaucrats dithered and obscured the facts surrounding the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. While Gilhooly is careful not to take sides in the pro- and anti-nuclear power debate, the almost inescapable conclusion is that nuclear power is a highly dangerous technology – maybe even too dangerous to be employed using the current Japanese business model, where the "nuclear village" shuts out criticism, and even knowledge, of its often dangerous operational practices and decisions. Yoshida's Dilemma provides a wake-up call to other nations with nuclear power, whether or not they are subject to the kind of natural disaster that destroyed Fukushima, and a must-read introduction to the way in which such technology is managed and promoted, not only in Japan, but in other countries. Click the image at left to find out more |