Ukitsu, Miwae 214
unicycles 119, 207
Valdivia, Chile 55
volcanoes 180–81, 242
Yamada, Moto 165
Yamamoto, Seina 86, 91, 166, 167
Yasukuni Shrine 178
Yokogawa 19, 31, 60, 61
Yokohama 153, 154
Yoshioka, Kazuhiro 168, 199–202, 203–4, 205–6, 214, 215–17, 235
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Copyright © Richard Lloyd Parry 2017
Maps by Darren Bennett
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First published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 2017
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ISBN (hardback) 9781911214175
ISBN (trade paperback) 9781911214182
Prologue: Solid Vapour
fn1 Pronounced ‘Tour-Hock-oo’, with the last syllable short and abrupt.
Chapter 6
fn1 One of the worst places, of course, is anywhere near a nuclear reactor, such as those inside the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. But the fact of that man-made disaster, set off by the naturally occurring earthquake and tsunami, does not contradict what I have to say here about the resilience of Japanese construction in general.
Chapter 11
fn1 ‘Intensity’ refers to the effect an earthquake has on the ground, and varies from place to place, depending on their distance from the epicentre (by contrast with magnitude, which is a single number, measuring the energy released by a tremor). The Japan Meteorological Agency measures intensity on a scale of one to seven. Intensity 1 describes hardly noticeable shaking. At intensity 7, people and objects are hurled around, landslides occur and many buildings are damaged and destroyed.
Chapter 16
fn1 Like other families who failed to recover the remains of their loved ones, the Suzukis nonetheless conducted a funeral ceremony for their daughter at a Buddhist temple.
fn2 A quarter of a million people died in the battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest of all the battles of the Pacific War.
Chapter 18
fn1 Unicycles, along with wooden stilts, are a feature of Japanese primary schools: the idea is to promote good balance.
fn2 After it died, the authorities in Rikuzen-Takata spent ¥150 million (£1.2 million) on cutting the tree up, hollowing it out and reassembling it with fake twigs and needles. The Minami-Sanriku Disaster Prevention Centre was later reprieved.
Chapter 20
fn1 At the time this was worth about £11.1 million, or $13.6 million.
Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone Page 26
