JAPAN: Nearly a year on from the earthquake which crippled parts of Japan and a nuclear plant, radiation fears keep tens of thousands of people from returning to homes that are otherwise undamaged

Record ID: 326196

  • Title: JAPAN: Nearly a year on from the earthquake which crippled parts of Japan and a nuclear plant, radiation fears keep tens of thousands of people from returning to homes that are otherwise undamaged
  • Date: 14th February 2012
  • Summary: OKUMA TOWN, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 12, 2012) (REUTERS) EMPTY STREET OF OKUMA TOWN FALLEN BLOCKS ENTRANCE TO KINDERGARTEN ABANDONED KINDERGARTEN WITH GRASS GROWING IN PLAYGROUND GRASS AND PLAYGROUND BARS HOUSE OF 74-YEAR-OLD MIYOKO TAKEDA TAKEDA WALKING INTO ROOM TAKEDA PACKING BOX TAKEDA AND HUSBAND PACKING TAKEDA WEARING COVER FOR SHOES TO PREVENT RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES FROM STICKING TO SHOES (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 74-YEAR-OLD EVACUEE, MIYOKO TAKEDA SAYING: "It's like I have depression, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I lost 8 kilograms and when I went to the doctor I threw up everything I took. Now I can't sleep without medicine." TAKEDA WEARING KIMONO FROM WHEN SHE WAS A TRADITIONAL DANCER MORE OF TAKEDA WEARING KIMONO CEMETERY HEADSTONE KNOCKED OVER BY EARTHQUAKE MINORU FUKUO AND WIFE CLEANING UP GRAVESTONES KNOCKED OVER BY EARTHQUAKE FUKUO PICKING UP GRAVESTONES VARIOUS OF FUKUO REARRANGING GRAVESTONES FUKUO'S WIFE BEHIND FLOWER (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 59-YEAR-OLD EVACUEE, MINORU FUKUO SAYING: "We just prayed that we want to come back soon, and clean up the grave properly. So we just asked them to wait until then." FUKUO AND WIFE PRAYING AIZUWAKAMATSU CITY, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 11, 2012) (REUTERS) TEMPORARY HOUSES BUILT FOR EVACUEES FROM OKUMA TOWN ICICLES 47-YEAR-OLD TOMIKO IKINOBU CLEANING UP INSIDE OF TEMPORARY HOUSE IKINOBU WASHING DISHES MORE OF IKINOBU WASHING DISHES KIKKA TALKING WITH HIS MOTHER (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 47-YEAR-OLD EVACUEE, TOMIKO IKINOBU SAYING: "If it's a normal disaster you recover from it, and you go forward a bit every day. But this time you don't. All that's left is uncertainty. I just don't know when I can go back." IKINOBU SHOWING PHOTO OF PARENT'S HOME ON PHONE PHOTO OF IKINOBU'S PARENT'S HOME ON PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 47-YEAR-OLD EVACUEE, TOMIKO IKINOBU SAYING: "Once a year goes by, everything has a year added to it, so getting a new job gets harder. My kids are getting bigger as well. All I am asking for is a clear answer soon." OKUMA TOWN, FUKUHSIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 12, 2012) (REUTERS) ABANDONED DOWNTOWN AREA OF OKUMA TOWN RUBBLE AND ABANDONED BICYCLE IN DOWNTOWN OKUMA TOWN
  • Embargoed: 29th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Disasters,Health,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVACXY5OXNAT0X41XW4O3W3VL7PF
  • Story Text: While nearly a year has passed since Japan's massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake, for the residents of Okuma town in Fukushima, radiation has kept the crisis a real, if not always, visible and present danger.
    The Fukushima Daiichi Plant, on the coast 240 kilometres (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was wrecked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks that caused mass evacuations and widespread contamination.
    For the nearly 11,000 residents of the town, and nearly 80,000 people unable to return home due to high radiation across the prefecture, while many of their houses are physically intact the mental scars remain deep.
    Returning to move cabinets from her home on her third trip back, 74-year-old Miyoko Takeda explained that she has been unable to function properly since being forced to leave everything behind.
    "It's like I have depression, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I lost 8 kilograms and when I went to the doctor I threw up everything I took. Now I can't sleep without medicine," Takeda said.
    While Takeda took cabinets and objects she thought unlikely to absorb radioactive particles, she left behind the kimonos that she used to wear when she was a traditional dancer in Tokyo.
    Fighting back tears as she remembered the feeling of standing on the stage, Takeda tried on the kimonos one last time before their three-hour window to return closed and they were once again forced out of the exclusion zone due to the invisible spectre of radiation.
    The town of Okuma contains large parts of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex and geographically contains the four reactors that had problems in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
    Other people use their precious few hours inside the exclusion zone to visit family graves and repair the damage that the earthquake caused.
    With headstones overturned and weeds encroaching on ancient graves, 59-year-old Minoru Fukuo and his wife tidied up areas of the cemetery even though its only visitors now are passing wild animals.
    "We just prayed that we want to come back soon, and clean up the grave properly. So we just asked them to wait until then," Fukuo said.
    This is only the third time that residents have been allowed back into the nuclear exclusion zone and the first time that they have been allowed to visit graves.
    In the wake of the nuclear disaster the residents of Okuma have been scattered across the country in accommodation ranging from apartments to hastily constructing temporary housing.
    For those living in such housing and without a clear answer on when they will be allowed to return, or even if they will be able to at all, some have lost hope.
    "If it's a normal disaster you recover from it, and you go forward a bit every day. But this time you don't. All that's left is uncertainty. I just don't know when I can go back," said 47-year-old Tomiko Ikinobu.
    The Japanese government declared the Daiichi nuclear plant to be in a state of "cold shutdown" last year but the Environment Ministry had said about 2,400 square kilometres (930 square miles) of land around the plant may need to be decontaminated, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg.
    Ikinobu lives with her four children in the temporary house, but has been unemployed since the disaster.
    With over 11 months having passed since the disaster that caused so many to leave their homes, she only wants to know what the government plans to do so that she can finally plan her life.
    "Once a year goes by, everything has a year added to it, so getting a new job gets harder. My kids are getting bigger as well. All I am asking for is a clear answer soon," Ikinobu said.
    The government announced a roadmap for decommissioning the nuclear plant last December and said that it will take 30-40 years to fully decommission the power station.
    In the long road to when residents can return to Okuma without worrying about wearing a radiation counter, the one-year anniversary may be the first of many.
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