TOKYO -- When rising temperatures threatened a catastrophe at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant days after a devastating earthquake in March 2011, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan finally decided to deploy the Self-Defense Forces.
He ordered SDF helicopters to fly over the plant to spray water over a heating reactor. Seeing Japan's struggle, U.S. forces stationed in Japan decided to jump in, setting in motion a rescue effort, dubbed Operation Tomodachi, after the Japanese word for "friend."
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