OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--With radiation levels still high more than four months after the nuclear disaster, attendees at a memorial ceremony on July 24 for victims of the March 11 tsunami had to don protective gear.
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--With radiation levels still high more than four months after the nuclear disaster, attendees at a memorial ceremony on July 24 for victims of the March 11 tsunami had to don protective gear.
Four of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are within the Okuma town limits.
The ceremony for the 11 residents who died in the tsunami was held in the Kumagawa district, about 4 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Nineteen people in six bereaved families attended the ceremony.
Speaking on behalf of all the families, Norio Kimura, 46, said, "I believe we will regret for the rest of our lives not being able to save you. We will go on living while protecting those family members that you left behind."
Kimura's wife, Miyuki, 37, and his father, Wataro, 77, died in the tsunami. His second daughter, Yuna, 7, is still listed as missing.
Because of the proximity of his home to the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Kimura could not search in the vicinity of his home. He resorted to hanging posters that say, "I am looking for my three family members who are still missing."
After the ceremony, Kimura said, "I feel lonely when I think that this means the three of them have left me. I regret that I could not search for them with my own eyes because of the nuclear accident."
The entire town of Okuma lies within the no-entry zone around the nuclear plant.
The science and technology ministry on July 18 detected radiation levels of 32.8 microsieverts per hour in the Kumagawa district.