On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima coastline in eastern Japan experienced a devastating triple disaster. A 9.0-magnitude earthquake, so strong that it shifted the earth’s axis, caused a tsunami that generated 50-foot waves. And even though the tsunami caused most of the 18,500 disaster-related deaths, the most globally recognized disaster is the nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, which led to the yearslong evacuation of 200,000 people in the region.
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Originally published by at asia.nd.edu on September 24, 2023.