When town officials wanted to hear what children who had been evacuated from a town in the Fukushima nuclear disaster exclusion zone were thinking, they heard a mix of skepticism, hope and pleas to return home in a survey.
When town officials wanted to hear what children who had been evacuated from a town in the Fukushima nuclear disaster exclusion zone were thinking, they heard a mix of skepticism, hope and pleas to return home in a survey.
“Let us visit even once since we are ready to wear protective clothing or anything,” one child told Namie town officials in the survey.
The survey by the Namie town hall, which is situated within a 20-kilometer radius of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, contacted elementary school and junior high school students from the town. The town hall is now based in Nihonmatsu in Fukushima Prefecture.
Many of the respondents hoped that everything in Namie will be restored to the way it used to be before the nuclear disaster, free from radiation.
One student said that people should be able to return to live in the town as much as they liked, with radiation eliminated.
A third-year junior high school student painted a rosy picture of a Namie in which the roofs of homes will be lined with solar cells, windmills will be turning in one district and motorists driving electric vehicles.
One child surveyed asked if Namie will still exist in the future. Another was more pessimistic, saying the town will no longer be on the map of Japan.
Asked for their requests of Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba, one child said, “Let me return to Namie as soon as possible.”
Another child, who seemed to be in an early elementary grade, wrote, “How much longer will I have to evacuate? I cannot stand (the evacuation) because I have been discriminated against.”
Only residents who are senior high school students or older are allowed to return to their homes on a temporary visit of a few hours under the current arrangement.
Some respondents expressed their keen desire to visit their homes. Another begged town officials to allow 6-year-olds and older to visit their homes.
A second-grader who is living in an apartment outside Fukushima Prefecture said, “Please take care of my grandmother who is living alone in temporary housing in Nihonmatsu.”
Baba said that he will take their requests sincerely and keep them in mind while the town is being rebuilt.
Namie town officials received written responses from 1,190, or 70 percent, of a total of 1,697 sent out. It is the first survey conducted by a municipality that had to move out of its jurisdiction because of the nuclear accident last year.
The most common complaint cited by the child evacuees was not being able to see their friends from their hometown, according to the survey.
The survey also found most of them are happily making new friends where they are now residing. About 60 percent are staying in the prefecture, while the rest are living outside the prefecture.
Sixty-two percent are living in an apartment. The percentage of those living in temporary housing was 17 percent.
Forty-nine percent said they are separated from other family members.
According to the survey, 79 percent replied that they are troubled by not being able to see their friends from Namie.
The students were allowed to choose multiple answers from 20 choices given as examples of difficulties under the survey.
Fifty-five percent cited their small housing units, while 51 percent expressed anxiety about an earthquake and tsunami.
The number of respondents who chose radiation and their parents’ unemployment stood at 36 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
As for positive developments, 82 percent said that they have made new friends, one of 10 choices given.
The next most common answer, at 55 percent, was they are enjoying their school. Fifty-one percent indicated they realized the importance of family.