Ichi-F

A documentary manga about the daily life of the cleanup crew at the No. 1 Fukushima nuclear plant after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

An incredibly fascinating look at what actually happens at ground zero of a nuclear disaster. Kazuto Tatsuta details everything behind the lives of worker from the process of getting hired to the daily Geiger counter checks.

There is some controversy surrounding this book as readers have been critical about how the companies behind the Fukushima cleanup in it are portrayed too positively, thus suggesting that the manga artist is in cahoots with them some how. While I’m not very familiar with the Japanese politics behind everything, I will still say that this manga is still a wonderful resource for learning about how nuclear fallout is contained and cleanup crews work.

We dedicated an episode to this book if you’d like to listen for further analysis.

~dakazu