Hopefully, most of us will only ever have to imagine what it would be like to live through a major earthquake, tsunami, or multiple nuclear explosions, much less lose loved ones during these unfathomable events – unlike so many unlucky people in Japan. No matter how many natural and manmade disaster movies you see (Independence Day, The Day After, Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, The Towering Inferno, Cloverfield, The Blob, Volcano, Executive Decision, and on and on), the psychological ramifications of living through such a catastrophe are virtually impossible for us to comprehend unless we’ve experienced it ourselves. (And we’ll be talking more next week about these psychological effects as they relate to the tsunami in Japan.) Thing is, the physical after-effects may be even harder to accept. See, in the movies, those characters who don’t die usually end up perfectly healthy, physically speaking. Sure, they’re a little bruised, battered, and bloodied from having just saved the world from the impending natural or manmade disaster, but just throw a blanket over their shoulders and let the paramedics give them a cursory going-over, and they’ll be fine. Not so in real life, particularly when we’re talking about nuclear reactor fires, leaks, and explosions like the ones happening at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Japan. More »