That succeeding generations built and rebuilt is testament to the stoicism and industry of the Japanese people.
However, Japanese society is also highly structured, and if a school principal is absent when a tsunami warning is issued, who makes the decision to evacuate if his deputy is a ditherer?
And what if this man survives while the children in his care perish?
Willacy, an Australian journalist, employs two narrative threads in this well-researched exposé: one that plots the lives of Japanese families who lost loved ones on March 11, 2011, and the second, that details the operating history of the six nuclear power plants operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company at Fukushima and the company's initial denial that any were leaking radioactive wastes.
As the clock ticks down to a disaster of epic proportions, who calls the shots as a nation asks for truth in the face of catastrophe? The other unanswered question is why towns were built at sea level after the earlier disasters.
Indeed, plaques commemorating the loss of loved ones in previous disasters, urge future generations to, ''Never build houses below this marker''.
Needless to say, thousands did, though 78 years is a long time between earthquakes that cause tsunamis.
Food for thought, perhaps, as far as Christchurch's future is concerned.
• Ian Williams is a Dunedin writer and composer.
