Events

Dry Run for War: How Fukushima Changed Japan and Its Place in the World

Speaker: MARTIN FACKLER, Assistant Asia Editor, The New York Times; Ash Center Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Discussant: ARN HOWITT, Co-Director, Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

When Japan grappled with a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011, it faced a stark choice: Who would risk their lives to bring the errant reactors back under control? This question occupied not only Tokyo, but Washington, during the frantic days when the plant teetered on the brink of a far larger calamity. For Japan, it was the first time making such a life-or-death choice since the end of World War II. The resulting decision transformed the postwar Japanese state, rewrote its alliance with Washington and opened the way for Japan's greater willingness to confront China in the western Pacific.

Join the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia for a discussion about the Fukushima nuclear disaster with Research Fellow Martin Fackler, a writer and journalist in Asia for two decades, most recently as Assistant Asia Editor at The New York Times. Arn Howitt, co-director of the Program on Crisis Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, will serve as a discussant.

Lunch will be served in-person. Registration is required for both online and in-person attendees. Virtual attendees will receive access details upon completing registration.

Harvard Kennedy School Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia event co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute