Social Media, Information and Political Activism in Japan’s 3.11 Crisis３１１ | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

At 2:26 p.m. on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan. A few minutes later, wave after wave of a massive tsunami struck the entire Pacific coast. As if the natural disaster alone was not enough, at 3:35 p.m., the waters from the tsunami - 15 meters high - damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor, spreading rumors and fear of mass nuclear contamination (Ito, 2012, pp. 34-35).