Strong in the Rain
By Lucy Birmingham and David McNeil
Palgrave Macmillan
Hardback: £17.99 $27.00
E-book: $12.99
Some dates will remain in the public consciousness forever, given their cultural impact. Personally, these would include 11 September 2001 (the attacks on the twin towers in New York), 7 July 2005 (the London Underground bombings) and 11 November (Armistice Day, commemorating the end of the First World War).
On 11 March 2011 the Tohoku earthquake occurred approximately 70 km off the coast of Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever to hit Japan and the fifth most powerful to be recorded since records began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40 m. The Japanese National Police Agency subsequently confirmed 15,883 deaths, ensuring that this date will live long in the Japanese cultural memory.
Strong in the Rain brings together six stories from people affected by the tragic events associated with the earthquake/tsunami on 11 March. The book is described as “part history, part science” and the authors use the experiences of the six people in the book, in addition to their own, to paint a tale of heroes and villains.
The book gets off to a slow start but the reading becomes gripping once the stories move on to the tales of the six central protagonists. It delves into the Japanese cultural strengths and weaknesses in equal measure, from the lack of information provided regarding the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi to the best qualities of the Japanese spirit and character, which are embodied in the town mayor who changes press coverage of the nuclear meltdown with a heartfelt plea uploaded to YouTube.
Living somewhere like the UK it is hard to picture the epic scale of this disaster but the authors weave between the stories of the protagonists to make you feel like you were there. The book manages to be both heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure and the title Strong in the Rain – taken from a famous Japanese poem – becomes an apt description of the events that unfold.
Some books portraying historical events have the potential to become dated but I believe that Strong in the Rain will stand up well to the test of time. This is mainly because of the human stories within the book that leave you questioning how you might have behaved under similar stress. What would you leave and who would you save? What does it take to be a hero? It also leaves you thinking how important learning from the past is to save us all in the future. I would heartily recommend this book and will be lending it to all of my friends.
