Directors

Summary

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 PM, a magnitude 9.1 megathrust earthquake hit Japan’s Tohoku Region, triggering a tsunami with waves that reached as high as 130 feet. With 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, 2,553 people missing, and more than 400,000 displaced, Japan experienced its deadliest natural disaster since the Great Kantō earthquake. This event led to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster, a major nuclear disaster that exposed humans to the highest amount of radiation since the Chornobyl Nuclear Disaster. 

The Days, an eight-episode Japanese biographical drama series released on Netflix on June 1, 2023, is based on On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi by Ryusho Kadota. It offers a unique perspective on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster by giving us insight into the power plant workers’ efforts to control the power plant reactors from releasing high amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. The series starts with the earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan, and the main focus is on the workers at the power plant and how they try to mitigate the effects the tsunami had on the reactors. Throughout the series, the characters deal with three explosions, days without sleeping or eating a proper meal, and anxiety due to not knowing what is going to happen since, if the radiation got out, the deaths of thousands of people would be in their hands. Besides the power plant workers, the series also focuses on the Kirihara household and how they deal with the fact that Koki, their family member and one of the youngest boys working at the power plant, has been missing since the tsunami hit Fukushima. This aspect of the series gives us a more general sense of how normal Japanese citizens had to deal with displacement, missing family members, and death.

Analysis

Nuclear energy has many benefits. It is often called clean energy because it produces significantly fewer greenhouse gasses than coal or oil. Uranium-235, the isotope responsible for making nuclear energy possible, is much more efficient than other forms of fuel. One gram of Uranium-235 can generate energy equivalent to three tons of coal, so it is not a surprise that humans have taken advantage of nuclear energy since its discovery. Despite our belief that we control sophisticated energy forms like nuclear power for our benefit, crises such as the Fukushima Daiichi disaster reveal our limitations in predicting and managing their effects on humankind and nature. The existence of these man-made technologies does not signify that they exist on Earth exclusively for our benefit. In The Days when the tsunami warning is issued, no one expects the extent of what is going to happen. However, the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant were not prepared for the unfolding disaster and the efforts required to save millions of Japanese civilians. 

In the first episode, “The Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant is Submerged,” the series opens with a flashforward scene in which one of our main characters, Masao Yoshida, is preparing himself to give a testimony about what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, and he asks, “Was it something we did wrong, or was it just inevitable fate?” The dark, isolated room in which he sits gives us a sense of mystery, and his thoughts make us feel his regret. Right after the opening scene, the setting changes to before the tsunami and earthquake hit Japan. The environment at the power plant seems positive; Yoshida is seen laughing and interacting with another worker, and immediately after that, Japan is hit by a massive earthquake, showcasing how unpredictable natural forces are.


Japan is in panic, many people are injured and washed away by the strong waves. Koki Kirihara, one of the youngest workers at the power plant, drowns on one of the lower floors right after the tsunami hits. The people at the power plant begin to panic as the water levels in the different units of the power plant drop and the pressure keeps increasing. High pressure and not enough cooling can cause a nuclear meltdown, which can rupture the reactor and release high levels of radiation into the atmosphere, hence why the people at the power plant begin to panic.

In episode three, “Radioactive Emissions Will Be Minimal,” Japan’s Prime Minister says, “It’s Chornobyl all over” after receiving the news that the pressure in every unit of the power plant is increasing. The link between the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and Chornobyl acknowledges how frightened the Prime Minister is about Fukushima’s future. We can see how terrible the disaster is when comparing Fukushima Daiichi to the greatest nuclear disaster in history. Without other options, Yoshida decides to open one of the valves to vent the reactor and lower the pressure. This will release low levels of radiation but will prevent a much worse scenario: an explosion causing great amounts of radiation to escape.

The character’s frustration becomes more and more visible as the days go on. Yoshida, as the manager of the power plant, tries to stay calm, but the situation is getting to him. Japan’s prime minister worries about his reputation and how he is going to explain the venting to the citizens. He yells and gets angry when people try to explain the situation to him. Rather than being worried about radiation poisoning, he appears to be worried about how he is going to be held accountable. 

Japan’s Prime Minister, in his position of power, does not understand the seriousness of the situation and expects the experts to handle everything for him. This seems to be a concurrent tendency when disasters like Fukushima Daiichi and Chornobyl happen. Those in power worry about what they have to lose when the real worry should be the danger it imposes on humans. His frustration is understandable due to the situation, but this disaster was caused by a natural force, and the only way to have prevented it was to prepare the power plant, so it has safety measures when these natural phenomena occur.

While the situation at the power plant gets worse, the Kirihara family receives the news that Koki is missing. Koki’s mom begins to make origami to cope with the fact that she does not know if Koki is alive. Origami symbolizes hope and peace and can be related to the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor. Sadako had a goal to fold 1,000 origami cranes so that her wish to live would come true. Sadly, she passed away due to leukemia. Koki’s mom ends up folding multiple boxes of origami, and while she does this, she seems absent from what is happening around her. The origami represents her hope for finding Koki alive.


As the series proceeds, three hydrogen explosions happen. The power plant workers have tried everything, and Yoshida, realizing how dangerous this is for humans, decides to let the younger workers evacuate. Yoshida seems to be mentally strong, but when he finds out that Koki and another coworker died, he starts to cry. The workers in the control room evacuate to the main office because of the high radiation levels in the control room, and they write letters to their families. Their letters are short. They seem to find it hard to say goodbye to their families, and the responses they get back are all similar: “Don’t be ridiculous,” “If you die, I won’t forgive you,” adding even more to the pressure they are going through because they do not only worry about their families but also about the millions of people that could end up dying if they do not control the reactor. One particular scene shows how badly this situation affected the power plant workers mentally and physically; they worked so hard on little sleep and little food that the urinals at the power plant were covered in blood, and Yoshida mentions, “No one batted an eye anymore when passing blood in their urine.”

The Prime Minister realizes that Americans are evacuating Japan and asks President Obama to cancel the evacuation order. He is worried that it would imply that Japan was incompetent, and it would affect the way other countries view Japan and its handling of the situation. He wants to let Obama know that Americans are safe in Japan because if they continue leaving, it would all reflect on him and his powerless position in the matter. 



The Prime Minister orders the Self-Defense Forces to help Fukushima inject water with helicopters, aircraft, and military men. The situation is solved by the injection of water, and instead of informing the citizens right away, the prime minister calls Obama and asks him if he can cancel the evacuation order. He does this with a big smile on his face as if Obama could see him, and for the first time in the series, we see his kind and calm side. Obama, worried about the radiation, tells him that it is impossible to do this, and instead of being happy about the reactor being stabilized, the Prime Minister gets angry, and we can see this by the way his previously radiant smile drops and his hold on the telephone tightens.

The Kirihara family is informed about Koki’s death, and the mother finally breaks down, covering the casket with a blanket, just like she probably did when he was a kid. Yoshida mentions how many of Koki’s coworkers did not attend the funeral because even if the problem was solved, they still had to work toward a cold shutdown of the power plan. Koki’s family carries multiple bags of origami, which they put next to his funeral picture, symbolizing his mother’s hope for finding him alive.


At the end of the series, Yoshida explains how it all started. He narrates how Uranium-235 was a beacon of hope for Japan in the 1950s and how they ended up destroying hillsides, sinking seawalls into the ocean, and clearing land to build the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. He says, “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.” He explains how difficult it is to clear the power plant because the debris left by the hydrogen explosions emits radiation and makes it hard for the workers to destroy it. Videos of the abandoned homes of the Fukushima prefecture’s Hamadori area are shown, and the urgency of the evacuation is evident by the way the houses are still equipped with furniture, electronics, appliances, toys, and clothes. A dead cow can be seen in the scene, and this demonstrates how our actions affect other species negatively. Farmers had to leave their houses, and with that, they also had to leave their animals.

Yoshida mentions how wild animals have begun to live vibrantly in the Fukushima area. He says, “They reclaimed their territory that humans took away from them when the nuclear power station was built back in 1966.” Yoshida’s character seems to have grown a lot and changed his mindset. Before, he was the manager at the power plant, and he probably did not think about how his work affected other forms of life. The disaster made him realize how much impact humans have with their actions. Finally, he mentions that he has stage three cancer and how the media linked it to the nuclear disaster, but that he thinks it was caused by the stress he went through and too much smoking. He says that his goal is to make use of the time he has left and tell the story of the disaster to future generations.

Conclusion

Even though the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster was handled before the worst could happen, the amount of radiation released still impacted the lives of many people and resulted in 2.4% of the Fukushima Prefecture being uninhabitable today. The Days shows us how, even though we think we have control over these forms of energy, they are unpredictable. Masao Yoshida, during his testimony at the end of the series, mentions, “We are the makers of this machine. Yet, we could not react when it turned against us.” Humans seem to forget that the resources present in the world are not just there for our use; they share the space with us, and it has been evident that we are not meant to control them but rather to collaborate with them. All forms of energy, nuclear, oil, or coal, play key roles in our daily lives, but we do not realize the extent of how engraved they are in us. They are a part of us now. The radioactive particles released in Fukushima are still present in our environment. Our way of viewing the world as a human world makes us forget how nonhuman objects, species, and energy are the ones that allow us to live and how our lives are interconnected. We need each other, and if we do not achieve harmony sooner rather than later, disasters like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will continue to happen.


Bibliography

Nishiura, Masaki & Nakata, Hideo. The Days. Netflix, 2023. https://www.netflix.com/title/81233755

Official Trailer, The Days. Netflix, 2023 https://youtu.be/ZQkb7fCr2bQ?si=rUGFrCwcSCHJPlem

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防衛省, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Injecting_water_into_Unit_3_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Station%2C_Japan.jpg.

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