This article has some stats on casualties from the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan following the 2011 tsunami. I don’t want to trivialize the tragic loss of life here, just highlight some stats that were surprising to me.

• deaths from cancer linked to radiation: 1, a worker responding to the disaster on the Fukushima site as it was occurring
• suicides: 1 (mentioned in this article)
• radiation-related illnesses not resulting in death: 4
• deaths while being evacuated from hospitals near the disaster: 40
• deaths caused by the tsunami: 18,000
• people displaces from their homes by the disaster: 160,000

Overall you have to say it is great that people did not die in large numbers from radiation poisoning or cancer. People probably contracted cancer from smoking and not wearing enough sunscreen in greater numbers during the disaster. But if you want a gloomy way to look at it, at least for me a nuclear meltdown is now a less scary thing and a “thinkable” event, and that might not be good.