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March 14, 2011

Japan Fallout (Then and Now)

Even taken last Thursday, before the nuclear crisis started accelerating, I was shocked by these photos (taken by a citizen or citizens, I believe) of  a post-earthquake explosion at the Tokyo Chiba City Ironworks. I don’t imagine the likeness to a mushroom cloud escaped the photographer’s mind. There is only one thing harder for me to imagine than being in Japan right now and dealing with the anxiety and fear of the potential spread of radioactivity, and that is living with the history (and perhaps, the recollection of still-living relatives) of the atomic bomb attacks that crushed the country in World War II.

>>See more takes on Japan earthquake photos here and at Tumblr.

These photos, by the way, come from the Tumblr blog of Rich Tong, the fashion director at Tumblr.


  • Karen H

    The devastation, loss of life, anxiety, the wiping out of a whole section of a country is so hard to fathom whether it be Haiti, Chile, New Zealand, Japan, but the destruction caused by damage to nuclear facilities in a country once so devastated by nuclear bombs is equally tough to reckon.

  • Lanemeyers

    These photos remind me so much of the movie “The Day After” (1983), a made for TV movie with Jason Robards and a cast of roasted hundreds.

    I’m not trying to be funny or cynical. But I have this awful sense that our species is facing extinction and we know it, but we avoid dealing with it in a pro-active way…oh screw the buzzwords: we’re not doing much to prevent this kind disaster at all. We’re not doing anything. We’re too mesmerized with the iPad.