Clutching posters with their photos, Norio Kimura tirelessly searches for his wife Miyuki, daughter Yuna and father Wataro, but he is barred from searching their quake-hit neighborhood.
Clutching posters with their photos, Norio Kimura tirelessly searches for his wife Miyuki, daughter Yuna and father Wataro, but he is barred from searching their quake-hit neighborhood.
Their family home was in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, only a few kilometers from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The home was swept away in the tsunami triggered by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11.
Kimura, 45, has not been able to return to the neighborhood since March 12, when the government told about 78,000 residents within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant to evacuate because of radiation concerns.
He is frustrated this restriction has made his efforts futile.
"I feel empty," he said. "They may still be waiting for help under the rubble near our home."
The 20-km line has hampered the search efforts of families and police for missing people. While the death toll has surpassed 10,000, only five people have been confirmed dead in the towns of Futaba, Okuma and Tomioka, which are at the center of the evacuation zone.
After the quake hit, Kimura rushed home, only to find that his house had been obliterated. Only the family's puppy, usually kept in a cage inside the house, was there to greet him.
Hurrying to a nearby shelter, he was relieved to find his 72-year-old mother and 10-year-old elder daughter safe, but there was no sign of the rest of his family.
His wife Miyuki, 37, told her colleagues at an elementary school kitchen she was returning home "to let out our dog." Her father, who lives far away in Okayama Prefecture, called her cellphone, and she told him the same. Her father called her again later, but there was no reply.
Kimura's daughter Yuna, 7, was joined by her grandfather Wataro, 77, at a community center. The two are believed to have headed home to pick up Yuna's grandmother in his car, not knowing that she had already been driven to safety by a neighbor.
Kimura says Yuna was an outgoing child who was friendly to everyone. "My father probably took Yuna with him, despite the risks, because she had begged him to," he said.
The night after the earthquake, Kimura desperately searched for his three loved ones, aided by community firefighters. But the next day the government instructed all residents within a 20-km radius of the nuclear power plant to leave, and Kimura had no choice but to follow the order.
After taking his mother and elder daughter to safety in Okayama, he returned to Fukushima to continue his search, but could only do so outside the evacuation zone.
The Self-Defense Forces and about 20 police officers are continuing the search within the zone, equipped with protective clothing.
"We are unable to conduct the search as we would like to, because of the risk of radiation," said police officer Daiei Hashimoto. "All our team members feel frustrated that we cannot fully carry out our duty."
Hashimoto and others managed to take an elderly woman living alone to safety on March 12, but since then radiation risks and a lack of information have stood in their way.
Four SDF teams, each comprising about a dozen members, are combing the area, but have made "no major progress" in their search for the missing, according to an official.
Their priority now is to find any residents who may be left behind or chose to stay.
According to Fukushima Prefecture, the death toll in the prefecture reached 906 on Sunday, with only five deaths confirmed in the three coastal towns of Futaba, Okuma and Tomioka.
Since the cumulative population of the three towns alone was 34,000 before the quake, a police official said "at least a few hundred may still be unaccounted for" within the 20-km area.
The Japan Coast Guard, which has mobilized 50 patrol vessels and 20 aircraft, has recovered 69 bodies from the sea. But lacking both training and equipment to protect against radiation, they cannot enter the 30-km zone around the nuclear power plant.
Meanwhile, The Asahi Shimbun has learned that at least 60 residents still remain in the 20-km zone in seven of the area's 10 cities, towns and villages.
According to the municipalities, many have bed-ridden relatives at home to take care of, or cattle to feed. Most are believed never to have left.
Because the instruction to evacuate is not legally binding, "we can't do anything if they refuse to move out," said a municipal official. Gas and electricity have been cut off to most of the areas. Most municipalities are delivering food to the residents, while the SDF and others are trying to persuade them to leave.
In Tomioka, five people from three families, all with elderly or seriously ill members, were found in the evacuation zone on Saturday and assisted to safety. The town had not known they were there until someone offered information.
More people may still remain. The prefecture says it has not been able to confirm how many are within the area. Some municipal governments in the evacuation area have been relocated, making it difficult for them to collect information.
(This article was compiled from reports by Tsuyoshi Shimoji, Yoichiro Kodera, Koichiro Ishida and Seiichi Kobayashi.)