I usually love books on disasters, a bit morbid I know, and fly through reading them. This one just didn't work like that. It should have been great, especially since it was what the Prime Minister of Japan experienced at the time of the earthquake and Fukushima disaster. It was so slow to read. It is a really short book around 180 pages and it seemed to take forever to get through. If you want to know more about this fairly current disaster give this a try, just expect parts of it to be a bit dry.

This book lays out Japan's governmental and TESCO's company response to the earthquake/tsunami and related significant damage to the Fukushima nuclear energy station. Specific details are provided regarding decisions made, timeline, site visits, evacuation planning, and response actions. Prime Minister Kan appeared to be proactive in his approach to the disaster, incisive in his questioning, and proactive in his demand for opinions from experts in the field. I have never understood why our senior officials are not REQUIRED to be experts in the fields handled by the agencies they lead. Nan frequently appears defensive in the writing, and that was somewhat distracting. I admit, though, that I was not intimately aware of what was happening at the time, and there probably was more rumor and criticism than I am aware of. It seems that Nan was proactive in his responses, and I can agree that Japan may not want to pursue nuclear power based on its small size and location on the ring of fire. However, I have long been a supporter of nuclear power and reprocessing, and I don't think eliminating its use elsewhere is appropriate or necessary. Recommended reading if you are interested in man-made disasters, emergency response, energy, and nuclear power.