Original subtitles

[helicopter whirring]

[TV reporter] I can see it now. We're approaching the nuclear power station.

This footage of Fukushima's power station

was released by TOEPCO at 7:00 a.m. this morning.

Since there is radiation there,

our helicopter crew will not be able to soar directly over the station.

This footage was released by TOEPCO.

Oh, there it is! Those buildings are the power station.

In addition to Units 1 and 3, we can see Unit 4.

This building has exploded, leaving a hole in the structure.

The outer walls are blown away, leaving just the framework.

Are you seeing this? The scene is one of pure devastation.

Also, there are still workers on the ground there, correct?

And worse…

[sniffs] …there's so few of them.

[somber music playing]

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NEAR UNIT 2

[man 1 grunts]

Damn it!

[man 2] Yamanishi, can you carry these?

[Yamanishi] Okay!

[somber music continues]

[man 3 breathes heavily]

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

-[motor whirring] -[man 3] Sorry that it took so long.

Debris was everywhere. Is the fire truck still working?

[man 4] It was a close call.

Ten more minutes and I would have run out of fuel.

[man 3] We need to hurry. We can't stay here long.

-The radiation level's through the roof. -[man 4] All right.

[man 3 grunts]

[somber music continues]

-[man 3] All right. Done. -[motor stops]

[man 4] Huh?

Oh, hold on.

Huh?

This isn't good.

-[man 3] What's wrong? -[man 4] It's…

What's going on? It's fully fueled.

[man 4 grunts]

[somber music continues]

[man 4] The water should be coming out now.

[man 3] Do you think the pump's broken?

[man 4] I don't know. Let me try again.

-[man 3] Just hurry! -[man 4] I will.

-[clicks] -[motor whirring]

[somber music continues]

[man 3 grunts]

How is it?

Are you saying that no one knows how?

SEISMIC ISOLATED BUILDING

I'm sorry.

That wouldn't be something these guys do usually.

Plus, we borrowed that fire truck so they're not really used to it.

Oh yeah. That's right.

[somber music continues]

Regardless, we have to keep trying until we reach the limit.

-[man 5] Yes, sir. -Okay? I'll also keep trying.

Yes, sir.

-[Kinoshita] Thanks so much. -[man 5] Continue injecting water.

Do something.

[somber music continues]

Probably shouldn't have expected our guys

to run that fire engine.

Yeah.

[somber music continues]

MUTSU CITY, AOMORI PREFECTURE FAMILY HOME OF UNIT 4 OPERATOR KIRIHARA

-[telephone ringing] -[clock ticking]

TOEPCO MUTSU CITY, AOMORI OFFICE

Kirihara speaking.

Yes.

Yes.

[somber music continues]

[Mr. Kirihara] So, where is…

Okay.

Thank you for calling.

[somber music continues]

Koki's body's been found.

[somber music continues]

[sniffs]

[sniffs]

[somber music continues]

[TV reporter] Now to our next story.

In the aftermath of the earthquake,

chaos still continues at Narita International Airport.

Many foreigners have fled into the departure lounge

in hopes of evacuating to their home country.

Since the earthquake…

[somber music continues]

Sir…

Americans are starting to leave in great numbers, sir.

Apparently, the US government issued an order to return home.

Other countries are issuing similar memoranda.

There's already some confusion at Narita and Haneda.

[sighs]

Go contact the president.

[Kataoka] Yes, sir.

Prime Minister! Sir, he's here.

Oh.

Hey.

I really appreciate your help.

Of course.

Forgive me if I skip formalities. We don't have time to chat.

Well, that's a good thing.

'Cause obviously, I'm not here to make friends with politicians.

Okay, right to it.

If we…

If we safely shut it down somehow,

well, then that's all well and good.

But the problem…

The problem is

what am I supposed to do if we can't stop the meltdown?

Well, that makes sense with the position we're in.

After Japan is contaminated with radiation,

how do we keep the nation's critical functions running,

and how can we rebuild?

Exactly.

Well, as I'm sure you're already aware,

one reactor spinning out of control

would eventually cause a meltdown among all six.

There's no stopping them midway

because nobody can go near them.

So…

what happens then?

[clicks]

This red part here,

this area's a 170-kilometer radius from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Anyone that stays within that area will die.

You'll need to relocate them.

Furthermore, areas within the yellow 250-kilometer radius

should also be evacuated.

No one will be allowed inside.

It will be contaminated with radioactive material,

probably for several decades.

It'll become uninhabitable.

[tense music playing]

Seriously?

Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa?

You're saying all these people will lose their homes, right?

That's right.

About 50 million people's homes.

Not to mention

a great number of businesses will be forced to relocate too.

The Japanese economy

will be dysfunctional for a couple of years.

[tense music continues]

Almost a third of Japan's land

will be unusable for decades?

Our country

will be split into Hokkaido and West Japan, right?

Right.

[tense music continues]

That'll ruin Japan.

[somber music playing]

FINAL EPISODE

[music fades]

[helicopter whirring]

[man] Radiation levels of the air above the power station

were collected yesterday from our reconnaissance plane

and measured 247 millisieverts per hour.

We've concluded that operation is impossible.

Don't say impossible.

There's just a serious risk.

But if we can't inject below ground,

we're going to have to drop water from overhead.

As the media watches,

reporters calling Japan a hell zone,

we have to show the world that the government is responding.

Find a way to get water in.

But if we use choppers,

when there's another hydrogen explosion, it could crash and we'd lose those men,

which will make things even worse than your current situation.

Are you here to show us just how truly useless you are?

We're in an emergency!

Please. We need to show the world we can respond.

The SDF is our only hope now.

Tomorrow morning, first thing, we'll send up a plane

and assess the radiation,

and then decide what's actionable.

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NEAR UNIT 2

[somber music playing]

[man 1] That's strange.

-Get some light over here! -[man 2] Got it.

[man 1] It's too dark.

[somber music continues]

[man 3] Hey! I need light over here!

[man 4] Oh. Yes, sir!

[man 5] I replaced the pump's fuse. Is it working?

[man 6] No good. Still nothing.

[dosimeter beeps]

[somber music continues]

[dosimeter beeps]

[dosimeter beeps]

[man 3 breathes rapidly]

[man 3 grunts]

[man 3 grunts]

[man 3] Shine it towards the back. It's too dark. I can't see a thing!

[dosimeter beeps]

[Yoshida] How's the water level?

[Maejima] Still no good.

CONTROL ROOM FOR UNITS 1 & 2

[Maejima] Showing no sign of going up.

[Yoshida] And the pressure?

Primary containment pressure

is at 730 kilopascals.

[somber music continues]

[music fades]

Oh, damn it.

Without the fire truck working, there's no way to inject water.

Where did Mr. Araki go to?

What?

From the Nuclear Security Service. Seiji Araki.

I'll see if I can find him.

FUKUSHIMA DAINI NUCLEAR POWER STATION EVACUATION CENTER

[woman] Mr. Araki, phone call from the station manager, Yoshida.

Hello? Araki here.

Uh, Mr. Araki,

thank God we got through to you.

[Araki] Especially since cell phone reception isn't too good here.

We're lucky the line is working at all.

What's going on?

We're struggling to inject water into the reactors.

How do you refill the fire engine's water tanks?

I want you to walk me through it.

Outside at this hour, right?

Do they even have any visibility?

[Yoshida] Yeah. They're, uh, working using flashlights.

-How many? -Just four.

Four was really all we could spare for that.

[Araki] Mr. Yoshida,

the procedure is very complex.

Plus four men is not enough.

In the pitch black

and without training,

what you want is impossible.

Please, no, you can't say that.

Whether they're doing it in the dark or not, it has to get done!

Forgive me.

I'm sorry.

Please, Mr. Araki,

explain how to do it, please.

Okay, Mr. Yoshida…

I'm not saying this to be mean.

Uh, I think it's simply impossible.

It's something… It's something I learned to do as my superiors showed me the ropes,

step by step in a suitable environment

and with all the tools necessary.

If they're touching it for the first time, I really don't think they can do it.

I'm sorry, Mr. Yoshida, sir.

Why don't you send me?

Have TOEPCO send the request to our president.

When you get the go-ahead from him,

I'll, um,

hurry over.

I can't do that.

-[Araki] Why? -'Cause…

You guys, subcontractors,

we simply can't

ask

with the current conditions.

TOEPCO really can't

make a request where

you put your life in danger to help us.

Hmm.

We'll continue to exhaust other options.

Mr. Araki,

thank you, sir.

For being honest.

So you know, I really appreciate it.

See ya.

[sighs]

[tense music playing]

[TV reporter] We see white smoke. Is it coming from Unit 4?

We can see white smoke rising up.

We cannot confirm at this moment

whether or not it is directly from the spent fuel pool.

We can see white smoke though. I repeat…

-Pools update? -[man] Okay.

I'm quite sure the water in the pool is starting to evaporate.

[tense music continues]

Where are the workers with injecting?

They've been saying they don't want to evacuate.

They want to keep working.

-Give them this message. -All right.

"You may

keep doing your job."

[Kinoshita] Yes, sir.

[somber music playing]

[meter beeping rapidly]

[somber music continues]

-[rapid beeping continues] -[motor whirring]

[man 1] How is it?

[man 2] Still nothing. The seawater isn't coming in.

[man 1] Let's try again.

[rapid beeping continues]

-[man 3] All right. One more time! -[men] Okay.

[man 3] Hey, turn it on one more time.

[motor starts]

-[man 1] Ready? -[man 2] Yeah.

[motor whirring]

-[man 1] It's not working? -[motor stops]

-One more time. -[man 2] Okay.

[rapid beeping continues]

[grunting]

Mr. President, please, I'm not withholding anything.

We didn't have power until this morning,

so we just couldn't observe the conditions of the reactor.

[somber music playing]

Evacuating every American

could send the wrong message to the entire world.

So, could you please reconsider?

We're taking every measure to remediate the situation,

and that includes ensuring the safety of all Americans.

I've ordered the Self-Defense Forces

to put together a special unit with over 100,000 men,

200 helicopters,

300 aircraft, and 50 warships.

An unprecedented scale of force is heading to Fukushima.

[somber music continues]

[sighs]

He requests that we disclose all information regarding the power station.

He's sending nuclear experts

to help us decide how we proceed.

Well, that will make things harder--

That's obvious!

Where are the helicopters?

At any rate,

I want the US to stop ordering Americans to leave Japan.

The white smoke is slowing down.

-Slowing? -Uh-huh.

-Then that's a bad sign. -It is.

It means our pool's almost empty now.

That would definitely explain it.

The evaporation rate will also slow down when the temperature goes down,

but given our current situation, that's probably not the case.

-Is that the guys on site? -Uh, yeah, yeah.

This is Yoshida. Anyone copy?

Kawakami here.

Oh, Kawakami.

-[Kawakami] Check the water supply! -[man 1] All right.

[Kawakami] Sorry.

It's taking so much time.

[Yoshida] No, no, no. I appreciate it.

How's it going?

Is the pump proving difficult to get running?

It's not sucking up seawater?

[Kawakami] We've been at it all night, and no.

I'm sorry.

Kawakami, stop with all the apologies.

[radio white noise hissing]

[Kawakami crying]

Kawakami?

[Kawakami continues crying]

[Kawakami] I'm just frustrated.

I'm not afraid to die or anything.

Twenty-five years…

For 25 years, I've practically lived in this station.

But I'm struggling with such a simple task.

It feels pathetic.

I've gotta get back to work.

[sighs]

-[Araki] Good morning, everyone! -[workers] Good morning!

What's he doing here?

Mr. Yoshida, you wouldn't even ask,

so we just came.

You decided just like that?

We are here to do our part in any way that we can.

We're here of our own accord.

No need to feel responsible.

We accepted the risk,

even if it takes our lives, okay?

We just want to protect our families.

And we can't leave that

up to any old, well, amateurs.

All right. Give me an update on the current status.

[indistinct conversation]

-[Araki] How many men? -[man] Three.

[Araki] That's a start.

[somber music playing]

Here is great. Let's put it down.

Wow, this stuff's thinner than I thought. Can it really block radiation?

[man 2] Probably.

According to the info from the chemical unit, it's more effective than lead.

-Be sure to tape it tight. -Yes, sir.

Don't let outside air in.

Did you follow my instructions on the fuel?

[man 4] Commander!

Sir, the recon plane's back.

[somber music continues]

The radiation levels were at 87 millisieverts per hour

at a height of 300 feet above ground.

We've determined each helo can work up to 40 minutes.

The 1st Helicopter Brigade

will commence the mission.

[somber music continues]

[Furuya] The water level is minus 1,450.

[tense music playing]

[Maejima] It's subtle, but the water level is going up.

We should check on the pool, don't you think?

Yeah.

I still don't know how we're gonna

get water pumped up five stories.

[Murakami] Station Manager Yoshida, do you copy?

[tense music continues]

I'm here.

We just received a message here at the head office.

It's from three construction companies.

Uh, this isn't the best time.

[Murakami] When constructing buildings,

they use pumper trucks to pour the concrete for upper floors.

They're asking if you can use that to inject water.

[tense music continues]

Think it'll work?

-What's its working height? -Fifty meters.

Apparently, it's good up to 15 floors.

Please have them send some immediately.

[Murakami] We'll need to modify it to inject water.

I'm coordinating that with the manufacturer.

To deliver it, we'll ask assistance from the police and transportation department

to make sure it gets through the abandoned cars and debris.

Thank you both so much.

Best of luck.

[somber music playing]

[man 1] There's no indication that they will get worse

and will likely have a small impact on the flight.

However, near the target, west winds are expected to strengthen.

Caution is advised.

As far as your procedures are concerned,

nothing has been changed since yesterday's briefing.

As mentioned earlier, we will decide which area to use

based on the on-site wind direction.

[telephone ringing]

Hello. Iguchi speaking.

Roger that.

-Green light. Mission is a go. -[man 2] Roger that.

104th Squadron, 1st Helicopter Brigade,

commence mission!

[somber music continues]

[Iguchi] Commencing mission.

-[man 3] Commencing mission! -[man 4] Roger that.

[man 5] Mission commenced.

POTASSIUM IODIDE

[somber music continues]

[man 6] Keep coming!

Keep coming!

Okay, stop there!

[air brakes hissing]

-I'm stabilizing the terrain. -[man 7] Roger that!

[somber music continues]

We'll set up a liaison office in the Prime Minister's Office.

We're negotiating a deal with the Americans

so that they can sit in on our discussions.

They will be near the office, so they can receive their timely updates.

-Matsumoto gave you this, huh? -[Sano] Yes, sir.

I'm also reaching out to the US Assistant Secretary of State

and the ambassador.

[helicopter whirring]

[tense music playing]

[man 1] I have a visual on the target.

[tense music continues]

[man 2] It looks like the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima.

[men grunt]

[man 1] Strong winds from the southwest.

[tense music continues]

[man 1] Closing in on the target. Over.

[tense music continues]

[Iguchi] Prepare to release the water.

[tense music continues]

[Iguchi] Target confirmed.

Release the water!

[man 2] Releasing water now.

Releasing water. Releasing water.

Releasing water. Releasing water.

Water release complete.

[sighs]

[gasps]

[tense music continues]

[man 1] Water release complete. Retreating from target.

[tense music continues]

[music fades]

-[newscaster 1] As you can see. -[newscaster 2] We'll continue to bring…

[Kinoshita] Well? What do you think?

How's our Giraffes?

Uh, on it.

-[clicks] -[heavy machinery whirring]

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI UNIT 4 REACTOR BUILDING

[somber music playing]

[man 1] There it is.

[man 2] Commence water injection. Commence water injection!

[somber music continues]

[large quantity of water spraying]

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI UNIT 1 REACTOR BUILDING

[somber music continues]

[Araki] Excellent.

[man 3] Mr. Araki! The pumpers are working fine.

-[Araki] Good. -[man 4] Let's work on that one first.

[man 5] Watch closely over there.

-[Araki] Is it going smoothly? -[man 6] Sir!

[Araki] Good.

[somber music continues]

[water gurgling]

[Araki] Is it supplying water continuously?

-[man 7] Yes, it's going smoothly. -[Araki] Good. I like it.

All right.

[somber music continues]

[Maejima] A lot of water's going in. The water levels are getting pretty high.

[somber music continues]

[President Obama] So, I was informed it's finally cooling down?

Yes. We finally started to see the signs of the reactor being stabilized.

[President Obama] My utmost respect

to the men and women of the Self-Defense Forces

who bravely fought on the ground, and to the TOEPCO employees at the site.

The United States is prepared to do everything we can to assist Japan.

If there's anything we can do, please just let us know.

Our country very much appreciates the kind words

from our strongest ally.

Could you cancel the evacuation order?

[President Obama] I'm sorry, Mr. Prime Minister.

Even though now I do understand

how hard your country has been trying to manage the situation,

we simply cannot take back the evacuation order

and I still want all Americans to evacuate from the 80-kilometer radius

of Fukushima Daiichi.

As of now, an hour has gone by since injecting seawater,

and already we've injected nearly 100 tons of water.

Already?

-Yeah. -Way to go.

[applause]

Yeah.

-Hey. -Aw.

[sighs]

[sighs in relief]

[man 1 exhales]

[rumbling]

Head office! Head office! It's another one. It's another earthquake!

[Murakami] Are the Giraffes okay?

How's the site?

Did we lose any Giraffes because of that aftershock?

[man 2] I have someone checking.

Don't do this to us.

The United States has issued an evacuation advisory,

but the embassy is stating that it's just a preventative measure.

The US has said 80 kilometers.

However, until recently, Japan has only advised 30.

So that begs the question, are we…

[Sano] We can't just expand the evacuation area just like that.

There's a 50 kilometer… How will the senior citizens get there?

[TV reporter] But the strong framework for cooperation

will help Japan and the US closely share intelligence

and work together to win the fight.

Well… [chuckles] …actually,

apparently, their assistance hasn't been well received,

because the Japanese government

has refused to share any information with them.

There have been reports about government officials

turning down these offers from the US for cooling materials.

Isn't it now, you know, crucial that we cooperate

and continue to work with the Americans on this issue--

Just when we're turning things around, they have to interfere.

She mentioned a new cooling material.

You think there might be any truth behind it?

Who knows where they're getting it?

We contacted the US government.

But they as well have confirmed that they never offered any new cooling materials.

These reports must be based solely on speculations.

[Yoshida voice-over] By attacking the government for their incompetence,

could the news media perhaps feel a sense of accomplishment?

At any rate,

the media continued to bash the government for the next few days.

But, contrary to the media reports,

the cooperative structure between Japan and the US took off after that day.

Seven ships arrived off the shore of Miyagi prefecture,

including the aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan

and the helicopter brigades that assisted.

Also,

in addition to over 200 experts in nuclear power,

10,000 hazmat suits, 30,000 dosimeters,

and massive amounts of other relief materials

were delivered to Japan.

The Giraffes are all safe!

They didn't even flinch at that aftershock.

Injecting water continues on.

Okay!

How much have they injected?

One hundred and fifty tons. The water level has risen to plus 3.7 meters.

[workers sigh in relief]

[somber music playing]

[Yoshida voice-over] We resolutely continued to inject water.

We had received the assistance of so many people.

Four project teams were set up at the consolidated headquarters.

In addition to TOEPCO,

the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, and Nuclear Safety

worked together with the national Police, Fire, and Self-Defense Forces

to end this crisis.

It was a total of 200 members.

The groundwork for an institutional response

was finally starting to be laid down.

Waguri! Waguri! This is no good. Do it over!

I'm sorry. I'll correct it right away, sir.

[somber music continues]

[somber music continues]

[Maejima] Flip the breaker back up.

[operator] Yes, sir.

[somber music continues]

-[operators groaning] -[mechanisms beeping]

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] So, why did this immovable destroyer finally relent?

Even now, the reasons are unclear to me.

[motor whirring]

It feels inexcusable.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] We are the makers of this machine.

Yet, we could not react

when it turned against us.

All we could do was continue injecting water.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] Through the pipes, we injected water inside the reactors,

and we made it rain from the sky.

We sprayed water from outside the buildings,

and continued to do so,

committed to the end.

[somber music continues]

[man 1] Both hands, please.

[somber music continues]

-Hello. -Welcome back.

-[man 2] Welcome back. -Thank you.

-[man 3] Welcome back. -[Maejima] Hello.

[man 4] Mr. Maejima, this way, please.

-Do you have a condition that worries you? -No.

-[man 4] Everything's okay? -Yeah.

[somber music continues]

-[man 4] You seem to be fine. -Hmm.

[man 4] Okay.

Welcome back. Power generation wants to see you.

Can you take a look?

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] In the end, my own life was spared.

[somber music continues]

[somber music continues]

[music fades]

We have a picture. Are you willing to take a look at it?

[Mr. Kirihara] All right.

[exhales]

[stifles tears]

That's him.

Koki!

[sniffs]

Hey, it's your family.

[crying] We're here to take you home.

Let's go home together.

[sniffs]

[Atsuko cries]

[Kirihara's sister cries]

[sniffles] You must have been cold

for so long.

[sniffles] You deserve to rest a while.

[Atsuko sobbing]

[Atsuko continues sobbing]

Koki.

You did well. Really.

[Atsuko sobs]

You did well, my son.

[Atsuko sobs]

[Atsuko continues to sob]

[Atsuko continues to sob]

[Yoshida voice-over] Two power station employees lost their lives

in this accident.

[mournful singing]

[Yoshida voice-over] On April 6th,

the funeral was held for Koki Kirihara, who died in the basement of Unit 4.

[mournful singing continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] Many of us

were unable to attend.

[mournful singing continues]

[somber music playing]

[Yoshida] That's because the work

toward a cold shutdown was still continuing in April.

Those who had been fighting with their lives on the line since March 11th

still had no rest after an entire month.

We were all mentally and physically exhausted to the extreme.

No one batted an eye anymore when passing blood in their urine.

But what started this in the first place?

[mysterious music playing]

[Yoshida voice-over] In the 1950s,

having overcome the defeat in World War II,

Japan was enjoying a rapid economic growth on an unprecedented scale.

An enormous amount of energy was necessary.

The nuclear fuel uranium 235,

one gram of that can generate energy equivalent to three tons of coal.

It's a particle worth three million times its weight.

Japanese citizens believed that this soaring growth would continue forever.

They saw a beacon of hope in this energy of the future.

NEW ENERGY FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE

[explosion]

[Yoshida voice-over] So we destroyed entire hillsides,

sunk seawalls into the ocean,

and cleared the lush land of Chojahara in Fukushima prefecture's Hamadori area…

to build a nuclear power station.

A power station to generate the energy of the future.

[foreboding music playing]

[no audible speech]

[Yoshida voice-over] And 40 years later,

we're now tearing down that power station day after day.

Back when it was built,

who would have imagined this?

That there would come a day

when we must destroy the power station of hope

that generated the energy of the future.

What's more,

some say this process will take 30 years,

or even 40 years.

[somber music playing]

[Yoshida voice-over] The debris that was scattered by the hydrogen explosions

is emitting high doses of radiation,

creating quite an obstacle for workers.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] There is still unspent nuclear fuel

left inside the reactors.

JANUARY 2017

[Yoshida voice-over] When the cooling system broke down…

SEISMIC ISOLATED BUILDING

…the molten nuclear fuel not only dissolved itself,

but also dissolved the nuclear reactor.

The substances combined and accumulated at the bottom of the reactor.

This radioactive material is referred to as "nuclear debris"

and amounts to several hundred tons.

Of course, humans can't go near it.

Not only that, but the enormous amount of radiation

refuses to let us peek inside, even from afar.

The estimated radiation level

is 70 sieverts per hour.

Not 70 millisieverts,

but 70 sieverts.

According to one study, after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima,

the radiation level at a location a kilometer and a half away

from ground zero was one sievert.

If someone stayed inside the Unit 2 primary containment vessel

for one hour,

they would have been exposed to radiation equivalent to 70 times more.

FEBRUARY 2019

[Yoshida voice-over] Recently, they discovered that the debris

can possibly be moved.

But that's it.

They don't know

how to extract it, or how to store it.

It will be years down the road before they decide

on a permanent disposal method.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] Nobody knows when the decommissioning work will come to an end.

The people of Fukushima prefecture's Hamadori area

abandoned their precious homes

and were forced to leave their neighborhoods behind.

117,000 people leaving their hometown

resulted in tens of thousands of abandoned houses.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] Farm animals lost their owners

and before long, they all perished.

[flies buzzing]

[Yoshida voice-over] Meanwhile, wild animals

seem to have begun living vibrantly.

They reclaimed their territory

that humans took away from them when the nuclear power station was built

back in 1966.

A little over forty years ago,

we leveled mountains,

built a concrete wall in the ocean,

and took away the habitats of wildlife.

Now, humans are the ones that risk losing their habitats.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida] Perhaps because the air was purified due to fewer vehicles,

the sky is clear at night

and the stars are shining more beautifully than ever before.

[somber music continues]

20 KM TO FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION

[Yoshida voice-over] It even struck me

that maybe Fukushima has returned to how it was before.

No.

That's not right.

There's an enormous negative heritage living here.

The giant structure

that we once called "a bright future"

has become a negative heritage

that we must continue to face for decades to come.

[somber music playing]

[Yoshida voice-over] Humans are helpless in front of nature.

Before the beautiful skies and ocean of Fukushima,

we are busy cleaning up

after the mess caused by our arrogance

even today.

[man] Keep coming!

Go, go, go! Go, go, go!

No, stop!

[Yoshida voice-over] There used to be over a thousand cherry blossom trees

within the power station grounds

[meter beeping]

[Yoshida voice-over] But they were judged to be a contamination source

and most of them were cut down.

The number will be down to about 400 trees.

What can I do from here?

With the time I have left?

The time I have left…

That's right.

The time I have left.

After the accident, I was diagnosed with cancer.

[somber music playing]

[Yoshida voice-over] Stage three. I was told it's the hard-to-treat kind.

The media claimed

it was from the radiation I was exposed to during the accident

and linked it to the nuclear accident in their reports.

But as for me,

I think it was caused by the stress of the accident response work

and too much smoking.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] A possible fix would be to make the seismic isolated building

smoke free.

But that's beside the point.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE

With the time I have left,

I think it's become my job

to tell the story of that major disaster to future generations.

[somber music continues]

[Yoshida voice-over] What I can speak about is not of much value.

But what I can do

is leave a record of my experiences at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

I was there on that fateful day.

I saw what happened there.

I heard the sounds,

I smelled the air,

and I felt the terror.

The only people that can speak to that

are the people who were there.

So that's my duty

as someone who experienced that accident.

That's why I must speak about it.

That's why

I can't die just yet.

I'd like to live

just… a little longer.

Mr. Yoshida, contingent upon certain circumstances,

it is, uh possible

that your answers today may be made public

with the words you speak almost unchanged.

May we proceed?

Sounds good to me.

[somber music playing]

On July 9, 2013, two years after the accident,

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Manager Masao Yoshida

passed away at the age of 58.

His post-accident testimony was released as The Yoshida Testimony.

Along with TEPCO's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Analysis Report,

it has proven to be an unprecedented and invaluable record

of an unfolding nuclear power station accident.

The journalist Ryusho Kadota

interviewed more than 90 people who responded to the accident.

His findings were published

in his book, On The Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi.

This series was based on The Yoshida Testimony,

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Analysis Report,

and On The Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi.

In honor of the people who were present on that day

and in that place, we have tried to faithfully portray

their struggles, fears, and their heavy responsibility

while also compressing and dramatizing

certain events and characters in the form of a narrative story.

As of the current date in 2023,

the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station remains unresolved,

and the work of decommissioning continues to this day.

[somber music playing]

[somber music continues]

[music fades]