kraybill: there's a lot of financial pressure on the amish rural and agricultural way of life. land has become very expensive. you may have one farm that's worth a million dollars, but if you have to buy farms for six or seven children, it's just impossible.

young man: i could be a farmer, do carpentry, masonry, have a market stand. i could... framer, roofer, painter, landscaper, any... it's just on and on. you could be a wallpaperer, drywaller, um... manufacturer, welder, woodworker. it's just this... such big... such a big variety of things that... of occupations in the area. it's almost too early to tell.

i don't know. i never went through it before, so i don't know how it's going to be, like, probably going to be fun and still sometimes wish i could still just go and play ball and just have fun playing and, yeah... i don't know how it's... i don't know how it's going to be. it probably won't seem as different until the... until school starts again and then i won't go back.

amish man 7: what are 20,000 people going to do to make a living in this tight area,

with the transportation mode that we have? what are they going to do? they can't all buy farms. impossible. they turn 16 and 17, and they head for the factories. amish teen 3: when i started working in the factory, that's when i really grew up. because in there, you... i mean, you're treated like a man, no matter how old you are.

it's a very high-pressured atmosphere where they don't care about your clothes you wear, who you are. it's just if you can work fast and do what they want, you're in. and so that really made me grow up, because it wasn't who i was, it was what i could do. you're always thinking ahead. you're always thinking what you need to do next. i'm always thinking as fast as i can. i wouldn't want this my whole life.

i wouldn't want to raise my kids underneath this pressure. amish man 7: we're just doing things that... we didn't do 25, 30 years ago. and when that happens, you tend to panic a little bit. you have to wonder: where are we going? what's this going to lead to? is this what we really want? (bell rings) kraybill: i think the move off of the farm into small businesses, into working in outside "english" factories

has been the most significant, the most consequential change since they came to north america. it touches how they think, it touches how much technology they use, it exposes them to outside ideas, it exposes them to the larger world, it exposes their children to many things. and how that plays out over two or three generations, i think, is a major issue that we don't know the outcome of that yet. amish man 8: when we started thinking about moving, we looked in a lot of different places. we had to find a place that we could travel by horse and buggy, have the old ways of doing things, and still have enough work going on in the area that...

that we had a chance of making a living and making a go of it. we don't know if this is going to work out or not. but if we do have to leave, it will bring tears to our eyes. real estate agent: so now on bishop's place, bishop's is not listed. he's given, given us the right to go look at it, so when we get there, let's just walk all the way through there. i know this house pretty well. i'll point out some stuff that... amish man: i'd like to see the barn about more than anything almost. real estate agent: oh, we'll get in the barn. so what are you thinking about one of these five-acre pieces? just curiosity? okay. you know, i did check out the well on that one, and it checked out pretty good, if i remember. but i'd have to pull it up again. i might even have that information in your file. i bet i do.

amish man 8: over the years, i saw ohio changing tremendously. and there's about four or five times the number of families living in the same area than there was as a boy. there's really no place for the children to roam around and go out back and play and use their imagination. they're just kind of stuck on that little one acre of land and that's not really what i consider the ideal amish lifestyle. mr. bishop said 275. did he, serious? did he really? right there, while you were still there? yeah. well, that's good. yeah. that's good. that's a real good sign. real estate agent: he said bob and him talked about it, and 275, but he said, "well, we listed it for 295."

amish man 8: because yeah, i'm sure two years ago it was 335, or something like that.. 339? real estate agent: amazing the difference in the wells. 500 feet, 140 something? hard to believe. amish man 8: we've still got a lot of things to figure out, entirely new country. back east we worried about having too much water; here we worry about not having enough. we've got to experiment with different ways of growing produce and see what works and what doesn't work, and hopefully work things out for the children in the future. if we can stick it out here, the first ones, for a couple of years, and we get 12 to 15 families in that length of time,

and everybody is able to make a living and survive, then i would say that it would be a thriving community and could probably grow from there. i feel a tremendous responsibility. some days it's almost overwhelming. i'm the eldest one here, and we've got young people moving in, just extending themselves right to the limit to buy properties and make a home here. and if it doesn't work out, i just feel like maybe i let them down, or maybe i should have never started.

(insects chirping) (woman singing with rock band) kraybill: there are a lot of myths about rumspringa.

and basically it means that young people on saturday and sunday afternoons, sunday evenings, can go out with their friends. and so for the first time, when they're 16, an amish boy may get his first carriage, he begins interacting with peers in a larger group, and this continues basically until the person is married. it's a time to socialize, and especially it's a time to look for a mate. and they also are in a friendship group that will follow them through the rest of their life. amish teen 3: biggest difference is, saturday nights you got your group of friends. you go out with whatever group you're with.

there's actually names for them. it starts out with low clinton, where they would basically be like their parents. they wouldn't do any fancier clothes, as far as even amish fancier clothes. the high clinton, they might do a little bit fancier clothes. you know, the girls figure out how to do fancier sleeves on their dresses, and the boys, they might do corduroy. and then there's the "what's up." they would be more high class. the latest jeans, the latest shirts, have up-to-date haircuts, and some of them also go clubbing and stuff like that, date english girls. amish teen 1: i know where i'll end up

or where i hope to end up as far as, like, my future. but like, my friend and i, we're just always, like, "we just want to settle down sometimes." but then sometimes i wouldn't want to either. what if i would marry a guy that would want to just go out, strike out on his own, be in another state? i'd be like, "no! i don't want to go!" that would be so hard! i mean, i think 14 miles is a long way from home. you know, think about being a hundred miles, a couple hundred miles away. would be terrible. they say wherever he goes, you'll follow, but it would still be hard. how far do you live from your parents?

(firecrackers whistling) amish teen 3: if you look at it that you want to live a free life, you want to drive, and you want to be able to get around and do what you want to, you're giving up a lot. if you want to be with your friends, be with your family, be within 20 miles of your family for the rest of your life,

there's a good chance that'll happen in the amish. and in that sense, you're going to be gaining a lot. don't get me wrong. there's problems. people don't get along all the time. there's conflict. but if you really want to live an amish life and follow it, there's a good way out there to do it and be happy. tour bus driver: this is an amish farm. on the left is a farmer who raises ponies!

tourists: ah... tour bus driver: you see him over there on the left? amish man 5: i have to tell you a little story. there was a tour bus. amish man got on and they asked him, "what's the difference between you and us?" tour bus guide: the man on the left has 13 children through the same woman. amish man 5: well, he said, "how many of you have television?" all the hands went up. he said, "how many of you, if you have a family, think you'd be better off without television?" practically all the hands went up. he said, "how many of you are going to go home and get rid of it?" no hands went up. he said, "that's the difference between you and the amish. "because we will do it. if it's bad for the family, we will not have it." amish people have no food restriction. they can eat anything.

they can smoke if they want to. they grow the tobacco; you might as well smoke it. amish boy: this is a quillow. it might look like a pillow, but then there's a pocket here, and you can pull it out, it turns into a blanket. hey, that's nice. hey, you're pretty good at that. then you still have the pocket here, which you can stick your feet in. (laughing) to fold it up, pocket face down, you half fold them on the line, looks good on both sides... amish man 3: we want to be a society of people that are separate from the world, but still we want to be friends with the world. but it's tough. you rub shoulders with the outside world, and after a while, you're just like they are. and it happens fast. kraybill: amish people who are in situations

where they are rubbing shoulders a lot with the outside world have a keen sense of the potential danger that it could bring to their community. they're exposed, and their children are exposed to things that would have been unheard of 30 years ago. and so all of that presents dangers, and some amish leaders, i think, worry about, "what will the long-term consequences be, and what will this mean for our children down the road?" do you want this in a bag? no, that's okay. $6.88 with the tax, sir. amish man 3: some people stretch the line a little bit, and before they know what happens, they're halfway out in the world. and they didn't even realize it. boy: thank you. you have a good day. amish man 3: and then for some, it's too late, then they can't turn back.

and they lose faith in the amish church, and they disappear. amish man 4: working with the land i think has a tendency to draw you closer to the creator.

i don't know if you remember old hank williams. he had a song... "i can plough a field all day long, "i can catch catfish from dusk 'til dawn. "my grandpa taught me how to live off the land. "he showed me how to be a businessman. and a country boy can survive." how hard will it be in the future? i don't know. i just don't go there. we're just pilgrims and foreigners, just passing through. this life is just a speck in the sand, compared to eternity.

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>> narrator: tonight on frontlininside the worst nuclear disaster of the century. one year later, men who risked their lives to save the fukushima nuclear plant reveal what really happened... >> (translated): we never imagined we'd be sent there. i was praying. >> narrator: ...the life and death decisions... >> (translated): this would affect not just japan, but the world. >> narrator: ...the lives upended by radioactive fallout...

>> (translated): i had one daughter left. i had to protect her. >> narrator: ...and the courage. >> (translated): we did it. we did it for everyone. >> narrator: tonight on frontlinthe story of those tense days "inside japan's nuclear meltdown." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan, committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided

by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by tfrontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism.

(man speaking japanese) >> (translated): on march 11, there was a relaxed atmosphere at work. i was at my computer, writing reports. before that day, we'd had a few earthquakes, around magnitude four. then, i think it was about 2:46 pm, i felt an incredible rumbling in the earth. it was like nothing i'd ever experienced. >> narrator: the earthquake that shook the fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant was the most powerful to strike japan since records began. the company that operates the plant, tepco, has forbidden its workers from speaking publicly

about what followed. but one year on, they are starting to tell their stories. some have asked for their identities to be hidden for fear of being fired. >> (translated): i saw all the pipes fixed to the wall shifting and ripping off. >> (translated): it was getting stronger and stronger. this was no ordinary quake. >> (translated): we were all on our knees, holding on to the railings. then the power was cut. >> narrator: the workers stayed calm because they knew japanese power plants are designed to withstand earthquakes. the reactors automatically shut down within seconds. but the high radioactivity of nuclear fuel rods means they generate intense

heat even after a shutdown. so backup generators kicked in to power the cooling systems and stop the fuel rods from melting. takashi sato is a reactor inspector who no longer works at the plant. >> (translated): i wasn't worried about the condition of the plant. i had always thought nuclear power was safe. but in the end, the plant wasn't safe, was it? >> narrator: just up the coast, the fishermen of fukushima knew what was coming next. >> (translated): it's always been said on this shore, the tsunami will follow the earthquake. i went straight to the harbor

and headed out to sea. >> narrator: yoshio ichida wanted to save his boat. he was racing straight into the biggest tsunami waves to strike japan in hundreds of years, hoping to crest them before they broke. >> (translated): they were like mountains. we went over three waves that came directly from the east. they were about 15 meters high. it was like this. >> narrator: the biggest of the waves was more than 40 feet high and traveling at over 100 miles an hour.

>> (translated): when i looked back to shore, there was a strange ocean mist. i knew something bad was happening. >> narrator: at the nuclear plant, a worker was filming as his co-workers fled to higher ground. at 3:35 pm, the biggest of the waves struck. it was more than twice the height of the plant's seawall. it's now known that tepco had been warned by a government committee of scientists in 2009 that its tsunami defenses were inadequate. the company says it was still

reviewing the matter when the disaster happened. now, the tsunami flooded the nuclear plant. >> (translated): the port area was trashed. i felt something incredible had happened. >> narrator: this man is a senior nuclear engineer who still works at the plant. >> (translated): cars had been left everywhere by the wave. buildings and 5,000-ton fuel tanks were sucked out to sea. i watched them slowly sinking. >> narrator: most of the backup

diesel generators needed to power the cooling systems were located in basements. they were destroyed by the tsunami waters, meaning the workers had no way of keeping the nuclear fuel from melting. >> (translated): when i heard the diesel generators were lost, i couldn't square that with reality. i was stunned. >> narrator: this is the frantically scribbled log the engineers kept on a whiteboard in the control room as the nuclear plant slid towards disaster. 1542: nuclear emergency declared. 1558: loss of water level readings. 1636: emergency core cooling

system malfunction. no water can be injected. tepco turned down frontline's requests for interviews with plant workers, but put forward the managing director of its nuclear division. he acknowledged the company had never imagined that one of their nuclear plants could lose all power. >> narrator: in the 90 minutes since the tsunami, japan's government had been scrambling

to deal with one of the biggest natural disasters in the country's history. now, the prime minister was informed that the cooling systems had failed at fukushima. >> narrator: the prime minister asked to be kept informed of what was happening in fukushima. but for now, the executives at tepco headquarters in tokyo were in charge of tackling the nuclear emergency.

two hours had passed since the tsunami. the coastline was devastated. around 20,000 people were dead or missing. norio kimura, a farmer from fukushima, lived just two miles from the nuclear plant. he'd been out working when the waves struck. now he was searching for his family. survivors were gathering at the local sports center, unaware of the unfolding nuclear crisis. >> (translated): many people had gathered.

i was told three of my family were missing. i felt cold, like my blood was being drained. >> narrator: norio's father was missing. so was his wife, and his youngest daughter, yuna. >> (translated): i just couldn't accept that the tsunami might have killed them. i started searching in the rubble-- not just around my house, but the whole village. >> narrator: as night fell, the japanese government ordered an evacuation of everyone within two miles of fukushima dai-ichi. but norio and the others ignored the order and kept searching for

their families. just along the coast, the nuclear plant was still without power. the workers had no functioning instruments to reveal what was happening inside the reactor cores. they improvised. >> (translated): all of us who had a car or a company car were asked to get the batteries to help restore power. >> narrator: the scavenged batteries allowed vital monitoring instruments in the reactor one control room to work again. just before midnight, the workers restored power to the pressure gauge.

the levels caused panic. >> (translated): the pressure was going up and up. everyone thought, "isn't this dangerous? are we in trouble?" >> narrator: the engineers realized the rising heat of the fuel rods in the reactor core was creating massive amounts of radioactive steam and hydrogen. the resulting pressure meant the workers could not get water onto the fuel. even worse, it meant the containment vessel might explode-- a disaster that could leave parts of japan uninhabitable for decades. tepco now knew they had to release radioactive gases into the atmosphere to prevent the reactor from exploding.

but to take such a desperate measure, the company needed the permission of the prime minister himself. >> narrator: radiation has long been a sensitive subject in japan. after the united states dropped atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki in 1945, tens of thousands died of radiation sickness and cancers. yet now japan's prime minister felt he had no choice but to authorize the deliberate release of radioactivity.

>> narrator: but there was something tepco wasn't telling the prime minister: the company had never imagined they might have to vent a reactor without electricity. they didn't know how to do it. >> (translated): the venting valves are driven by motors. so without electricity, they won't open. it's possible to open them manually, but really difficult. >> narrator: in the darkness of the reactor one control room, the workers pored over blueprints to try to work out how to open the vents. the handwritten plant logs show that radiation levels were now rising. >> (translated): to see those kinds of numbers would normally

be unthinkable. and this isn't inside the reactor itself. it's in the office. it was a disaster. >> narrator: the engineers suspected something that the prime minister and tepco would not acknowledge for months: nuclear meltdown had begun. >> (translated): i realized that the fuel had started to melt. we got our masks and put them by our feet so we could escape at any time. >> narrator: back in tokyo, six hours after the order to vent the reactors, there was still no news from the plant. the prime minister began to suspect that tepco was hiding the truth. he decided to go to fukushima dai-ichi himself.

he was later criticized for interfering with the emergency work at the plant, but he says he had to find out what was really going on. >> narrator: at fukushima dai-ichi, the prime minister met directly with the tepco engineers. he insisted they vent the reactors. >> (translated): kan was very angry. the government had given an order. what was tepco doing? but we were trying our best. the valves were hard to open. we were genuinely trying. we just hadn't managed it.

>> narrator: the plant manager, masao yoshida, was known for being frank. he knew the radiation near the vents was at potentially fatal levels, but he told the prime minister he'd send in a suicide squad if necessary. >> narrator: the prime minister knew his orders might condemn the men who went into the reactor to death, but he felt japan's future was at stake. >> narrator: but then tepco got some news which meant the

venting was delayed yet again. the evacuation of the surrounding villages was not yet complete. if the reactors were vented, local residents could be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. norio kimura was two miles from the plant, together with his oldest daughter, mayu. he was still searching for his youngest daughter, his wife, and his father. now he faced a choice: abandon the search, or risk exposing his surviving daughter to radiation. >> (translated): the head of the village told me that the nuclear plant was in trouble. he persuaded me to leave. he told me...

...the living were more important than the dead. that's when my feelings changed. i had one daughter left. i had to protect her. >> narrator: but just after 9:00 on the morning of march 12, the villages around the plant had been evacuated. at last, tepco ordered the venting team to go in. the plant logs show the first two volung 9:04 am. >> (translated): they knew they'd be exposed to radiation. but they went in.

>> narrator: this footage was filmed by tepco seven months later, when radiation levels remained dangerous. it shows the reactor building where the venting team had to operate. >> (translated): it was not a place for humans. the temperature was 100 degrees plus. the surroundings were pitch black, and there was condensation. the radiation was high. i don't think i would have been able to go. >> narrator: each worker was limited to 17 minutes in the reactor building.

after nine minutes, the workers found the wheel for opening the vent. they inched it open, then pulled back when time ran out. four more workers followed, each spending just minutes in the reactors. >> (translated): they showed courage and resolution. their lives were on the line. >> narrator: that afternoon, a thin plume of gas signaled that the pressure in the reactor core was falling. the venting team appeared to have saved northeastern japan from a catastrophic explosion. the fukushima workers began to

think the worst might be over. >> (translated): i started to relax. i was hoping the reactor would soon be stable, and they would let us leave soon. >> narrator: with the venting complete, the workers could focus on getting vitally needed water into the reactor cores. suddenly, the ground shook. >> (translated): i was thrown a foot from my chair. no one knew what it was. maybe an earthquake? >> (translated): the ground was rumbling and shaking like an aftershock. it was like a thunderclap. >> (translated): then yoshida said, "did reactor one just explode?"

then we all panicked. >> narrator: the engineers feared that the reactor core itself had exploded, scattering radioactive fuel over the plant. in the control center, they watched the radiation levels and waited to learn if they would survive. >> (translated): many of us thought of running away. but there was no escape. if you actually ran, you would be exposed to radiation. >> narrator: after an hour, the radiation levels stabilized. the engineers figured out what

had happened. leaking hydrogen had exploded in the roof of the reactor building, but the reactor core itself was intact. >> narrator: in tokyo, the prime minister's chief cabinet secretary was playing down the crisis. >> narrator: the prime minister and his team were later fiercely criticized for hiding the severity of the disaster from the japanese people and the world. behind the scenes, they knew the situation was sliding out of control. the explosion had halted efforts to get water onto the reactor cores. it was now only a matter of time

before the fuel would melt through into the open, spewing out much worse levels of radiation. >> narrator: already, a plume of radiation from the gas released in the explosion was drifting across japan. the government widened the

evacuation zone, ordering everyone within 12 miles of the plant to flee. norio kimura and his surviving daughter were still in that danger zone when they got the news. >> (translated): i now thought it was dangerous to stay. iodine tablets were being handed out in the village. i made my daughter take one. i had to take her somewhere safe. that's all i could think about. we had to get far away from the nuclear plant.