People – Real Fukushima

Flowers Bloom in Namie

Real Fukushima — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 05:58:20 +0000

Hiroshi Kawamura began a flower business in Namie – 10 km (6.21mi) away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. After the disaster, it was difficult to grow fruit and vegetables because of the strict radiation standards, so flowers were the most sensible crops. Mr Kawamura’s produce now sells in the flower markets of Tokyo.

Below, Mr. Kawamura and his co-workers make pickled radish with local women. Kawamura also works with a day-service for the elderly.

The town office is trying to renovate a school building near Mr. Kawamura’s farm. They plan to re-open a kindergarten, an elementary school, and a junior high school there starting in April 2018.

Volunteers Work Hard

Real Fukushima — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 04:14:08 +0000

Mitsuo Matsumoto established the Minamisoma Volunteer Center and has managed it since May 2011. Since then more than fifty thousand volunteers have worked with him on projects around the Odaka area, which is located about 15 km (9.32mi) away from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Sarah Jones coordinates with her language teacher colleagues to join projects in the Odaka area. People from more than seven different countries who are living and working in Japan, as well as Japanese natives, participate. The Odaka area missed out on the initial influx of volunteers after the disaster because it was originally designated as part of the exclusion zone (within a 20km radius). Though the volunteer work got started late, the progress is steady. Everyone works hard to aid in the recovery efforts and give back the community.

Ms. Jones finds inspiration from the motto Mr. Matsumoto has posted at his center: 「できる人が、できる時に、できる事をする」which means: “The people who can, with the time that they can, doing what they can.”

Nuclear Operators at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Real Fukushima — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 01:08:51 +0000

As the crisis was unfolding, Yoshihiro Sato went back and forth repeatedly between the Fukushima Daiichi headquarters at its Seismic Isolated Building and the control room of the nuclear reactor to obtain data. Since he had worked for TEPCO for thirty years, mainly at the control room, he knew everything about the plant and felt little fear even in the station blackout. He was utterly desperate to fulfill his mission.

He was born and lived near JR Odaka Station in Minamisoma City. He was at an education center near Fukushima Daiichi on March 11, 2011. The next morning he told his wife that he would be back home in a couple of days and went to the nuclear plant. He was at the control room at 15:36 on that day, when a hydrogen explosion occurred at the unit 1 reactor. An evacuation order was issued for a 20 kilometer radius (12.4mi), but he remained in the nuclear plant and worked day and night. When he finally left Daiichi for the first time in two weeks, he returned to find his house empty. He eventually found his wife at his daughter’s apartment in Sendai.

When the evacuation order for Odaka was lifted in 2016, he returned to Odaka with his wife and daughter. He was afraid that his neighbors would blame him for the nuclear accident, but was relieved to find that they were as they had always been.

He sincerely wants to contribute to the decommission of the nuclear plant and the restoration of Odaka Town.

Trying to Rebuild Odaka – My Hometown

Real Fukushima — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 23:45:06 +0000

Tomoko Kobayashi has kept the garden at JR Odaka station by herself and with her own money for five years. She is the manager of Ryokan Futabaya near Odaka Station, which is located 15 km (9.32mi) from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

She was the first resident who returned to the Odaka town center after the evacuation order was lifted. Now she is surrounded by plenty of interesting people; some old friends, neighbours, entrepreneurs, a novelist, a sushi restaurant (Urashima), a local favourite ramen shop, and many others.
JR Odaka Station resumed train service in July 2016. An elementary, a junior high and a high school reopened in April 2017. Odaka has restarted its history.

You can ride around the town with a free rental bike.