Word: niigata
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...dangerous. But in bomb-bitten Japan, where radiation watching is something of a national hobby, rooftop Geiger counters started clicking ominously. Scientists caught rain water to measure its activity, and jets brought samples down from the sky. About 30 hours after the explosion the radiation count at Niigata, 180 miles north of Tokyo, rose from zero to 30,000 micromicro-curies per square meter of ground. The level at Tokyo's Institute of Meteorological Research rose from the normal 100 micromicrocuries per square meter to 120,000. This level is the highest since the big Russian test...
...inhabitants of the seaport of Niigata, 160 miles north of Tokyo, have long regarded themselves as fortunate. In earthquake-prone Japan, Niigata had never been hit by a temblor. During World War II, Niigata suffered only minor U.S. air raids. On the August day in 1945 when the atom bomb was first dropped on Japan, Niigata was the alternate target in case of bad weather. But the skies that day had been clear over Hiroshima. Small wonder, Niigata was known as the "GoodLuck City...
...last week, Niigata's luck changed. Said one survivor: "The ground rose up as though a giant had awakened underground and was trying to get out into the sunlight." The shock of the earthquake tumbled a brand-new bridge into the Shinano River. For a few moments the river ran backward, broke through embankments and flooded half the city. A four-story apartment house slowly fell over on its back, carrying with it a terrified housewife who had been hanging laundry on the roof. When the rolling stopped, she stepped to the ground, unhurt, as were the other residents...
Officials put the damage at over a billion dollars and estimate they will be rebuilding the city for the next two years. Yet Niigata had not exhausted all its luck. Only 27 people died and 403 were injured-a miraculously low figure for an earthquake that measured 7.7 on the Richter scale, only slightly less than Japan's worst, the 7.9 temblor of 1923 that killed...