Six Years after the Disaster

Some facts about Fukushima after six long years passed since March 11, 2011. 

Percentage of forest area in Fukshima: 70%

No. of towns affected by the mandatory evacuation order: 11

Total no. of evacuees in 2012: 164,865 

Total no of evacuees in March 2017: 79,446

The highest radiation recorded on March 10, 2017: Okuma town at 10.444 μSv/h

Total no. of population in Fukushima prefecture in 2011: 1,988,995

Total no. of population in Fukushima prefecture in 2017: 1,895,080

Total no. of workers for decommissioning in October 2016: 5920 

"Six" doesn't seem to be as a significant number" as some other numbers, like five or ten, or even seven, that mark passage of time better in our fragile memory. But this is what happens in ordinary Japanese life. The Japanese school year and fiscal year run from April to March. So mid to late March is a season of graduation, school break, job transfers, and relocations, and any other life changes associated with these big changes and passages of life. And there is the famous season of beautiful cherry blossoms. 

In the midst of these happy anticipations of life on a cold Friday afternoon six years ago, the earthquake hit and a massive tsunami followed. Children were still in school, high school and university graduations were going on, salarymen (as Japanese call their white-collar work-force) were exchanging their news about the next posts in faraway places, mothers were busy shopping for the weekend family outings.... Then panic and chaos began. A shock and trauma scarred their memories forever. It has never ended. 

Children who were born in 2011 go to elementary school this April. Children who finished elementary school that year have spent the hardest, darkest and most unimaginable forms of youth and teenage years in their middle and high schools. University students who graduated that year spent the rest of their twenties in this broken reality of Japan's super-power as the world's leading economy as they entered the job world. 

Future from Fukushima

Fukushima's future and its people are forever marked by the triple disaster and the ongoing struggle with the unresolved nuclear crisis. Collective memory is a powerful thing when building a new future. I've seen this logo, Future from Fukushima a couple years after the disaster, as a local movement among farmers and small businesses that started promoting revitalization of local economy in Fukushima. Today our team visited Comutan Fukushima, a brand-new exhibit hall that the Fukushima prefectural government opened recently as an information and learning centre about the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and the impact of radiation in human life and environment. We learned a great deal about Fukushima through our experience. 

Last six years my purpose of visiting Fukushima has been to listen to the stories of people and churches at the grassroots level which often get buried in the big headlines of media. I found it very helpful to be able to see the whole picture of Fukushima from a bird-eye view. Indeed a new future from Fukushima is rising!