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This week I'm going to recommend atomic accidents, a history of nuclear meltdowns and disasters

from the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima

by James Mahaffey. If you're curious about the history, promise, and dangers of nuclear power,

this is a great place to start. Mahaffey's book is honest, without being alarmist, and is extremely

charming and fun to read to boot.

Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to clean your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 141, Fukushima.

Today we're going to take a look at what is in fact only the second biggest nuclear disaster in Japanese history,

something that, by some standards, is too recent to really be history at all.

One of the common concepts thrown around in the field of history is the 20-year rule of thumb,

that you need about 20 years of perspective between you and an event

to really look at things historically. By that standard, this is nowhere close to being history yet.

And yet, well, I can see the merits of the 20-year rule. I'm not sure I'm willing to treat it

as a hard and fast line over which we cannot cross. There's some merit to

waiting for perspective, to be sure, but some things are just too important to put off talking about

...