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Nuclear disaster cartoon goes viral

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - 01:52

Mar 22 - Frustrated by the technical explanation of the nuclear crisis in Japan, artist Hachiya Kazuhiko creates cartoon character ''Nuclear Boy'' for clarification. Tara Cleary reports.

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PLEASE NOTE: RESENDING WITH CORRECTION TO THE THIRD LAST PARAGRAPH, CHANGING "RUSSIA'S" TO "THE UKRAINE'S" AND REPLACING "DIVERTED" WITH "AVERTED" IN THE LAST LINE Using the metaphor of a boy with a stomach problem and perilously smelly faeces, Japanese artist Hachiya Kazuhiko turns his country's nuclear disaster into an animated viral hit. Discouraged by the complex technical explanations of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Hachiya created a simpler way to explain the news to his son and his wife. He Tweeted a story about the fading health of "Nuclear Boy", A.K.A. Japan's nuclear plants, and the dangers posed by the spread of his foul excrement, namely, radiation. An anonymous artist then created an animated cartoon of the Tweets, posted on YouTube, which was then translated into English by Ryo Shibata. The cartoon also features "Three-Mile-Island Boy" and "Chernobyl Boy" referring to the U.S.'s and the Ukraine's nuclear tragedies. "Nuclear Boy" is a global sensation, getting close to one million hits on YouTube. But unlike the cartoon's positive ending, Japan's nuclear plants and its population are still in peril unless a potential catastrophe can be averted. Tara Cleary, Reuters.

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Nuclear disaster cartoon goes viral

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - 01:52