Meltdown
debragalant | March 13, 2011
Can things get any worse for Japan? Yes, it seems, they can. Though news stories are not definitive at this hour (12:40 a.m. on Sunday March 13), it appears that meltdowns are underway at two nuclear power plants devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. This photograph, by Kim Kyung-Hoon of Reuters, is particularly distressing. In it, a small child with a worried expression holds his or her arms high while a worker decked head-to-toe in protective garbs checks for radiation. Achingly, it brought back memories of watching the “The Door,” a haunting 2010 Oscar-nominated short film about a village that was evacuated after the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.
“That day we didn’t just lose a town,” the main character says in voiceover as we see him bury his beautiful daughter Lena. “We lost our whole world.”
I pray that the children of Koriyama fare better than the ones in Chernobyl. Watch the movie, just 17 minutes long, in the jump.
Read more about the movie here.
Female acquaintance told me Friday night that this was a warm-up to the 2012 cataclysm. I told her there is enough pain and suffering in the world without having to make up a mythology about it.
Seriously. Although the 2012 meme is definitely worth a post.
It’s heartbreaking seeing what Japan is going through and knowing the disasters may not quite be done with. Relieved though, that friends are confirming their families and those they (and we) know have been accounted for – after hearing nothing for days.
Really wish you weren’t getting so much non man-made material for this blog!