This is CBS, I on the World. I'm John Batchner.

11 March, 2011. 11 March, 2011. The day the earth stopped. A tsunami, leading to a catastrophe

that we now think of as Fukushima, Japan. This was a nuclear accident at the

end of a sea tsunami sweeping in from the Pacific. Someone who was in Tokyo at the time,

and later became the rescue and repair part of the operation, Grant Newsom joins. Colonel,

United States Marine Corps retired. And as I understand, Grant published this piece seven years after.

It's now 14 years after. And the details are a fascination to me because I was just finishing my

broadcast in New York about the time that the news came in, that there was a tsunami sweeping into Japan.

And there was at least one helicopter, maybe more.

Live shots or shots that looked live.

This is before we had a high-end communication system, so you

couldn't be sure, on the television. And the picture of a tsunami that looked about an inch

high from the distance, the helicopter was shooting, sweeping in and rushing over buildings

and crashing through cars, The few people we could tell

who had retreated to a higher place watched the water rush underneath them. It was a fascination.

What we didn't think through at that point because there was no reason to, I didn't know the

geography, is that the Fukushima nuclear power plant,

actually was called Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, was in the target zone of the tsunami.

Grant, a very good evening to you. Thank you for this. You were in Tokyo when the original earthquake hit,

Tohoku in 2011. Were your thoughts of tsunami?

Was Tokyo shots of tsunami at that time? Or was it a surprise? Good evening to you.

Oh, good evening, John. Yeah, I was in Tokyo and we had the biggest earthquake I'd ever, ever before or since.

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