The Days is a docudrama about the tsunami and subsequent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.
Koji Yashuko gave a powerful performance as station manager Maseo Yoshida, but every part of the story feels terribly real. There is claustrophobia of exploring a damaged reactor in darkness while wearing heavy protective gear. You’ll come to dread the chirp of dosimiters, (And it may not improve your view of politicians.)
It is eight episodes in length, meticulously researched based on the official inquiry, the detailed testimony of the station manager, and careful journalistic interviews of the people involved.
Producer Jun Masumoto wrote and developed the 8-episode series, and it was directed by Masaki Nishiura and Hideo Nakata. The writing, directing, acting, cinematography, special effects, and sound engineering were all top-notch. But maybe not what American audiences are used to seeing.
The Days received poor scores on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes… which seems wrong to me. Is it because there was no overpowering sound track? Explosions were realistic instead of Michael Bay flame-fests? The use of silence as a dramatic tool? It isn’t a fast-paced thrill ride; the story spends time with grief, with exhaustion, with uncertainty. The pacing may feel strange if you have not seen much Japanese television.
Context of the nuclear disaster:
Do you remember the “Demon Core” experiment at Los Alamos? Imagine if the experiment had been designed so that when Louis Slotin fumbled the screwdriver, the two plutonium halves fell apart, instead of together. It would have been a non-event, instead of an agonizing object lesson. Fault-tolerant design would have saved the day.
Fast-forward from 1946 to 2011: a much bigger Demon Core event was about to take place. Modern nuclear reactors are not truly fault-tolerant. They have backup systems and contingency plans, but only active control keeps them in check. When the metaphorical screwdriver is fumbled, things get bad real fast.
When the Earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukishima Daiichi power plant, disaster ensued. The monitoring and control systems lost power.
Nineteen thousand people died in the tsunami, which devastated the coast of Japan. But while the country was reeling from that blow, the damaged nuclear plant threatened to end the nation as an economic and political force in the world. Only exhausting heroism and a massive international effort prevented disaster from becoming catastrophe.
There are designs for truly fault-tolerant reactors, and I would love to see them built.
georgewiman 