TOMIOKA, Fukushima Prefecture--Evacuees are trickling back to see the famed “cherry blossoms of Yonomori” that had attracted more than 100,000 annual sightseers before the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
TOMIOKA, Fukushima Prefecture--Evacuees are trickling back to see the famed “cherry blossoms of Yonomori” that had attracted more than 100,000 annual sightseers before the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Following the meltdowns, the entire town of Tomioka was designated a no-entry zone, residents were evacuated to other municipalities throughout the country, and the annual cherry blossom festival on a 2.5-kilometer road lined with 2,000 trees was suspended.
On March 25, however, Tomioka was realigned into three areas, which has allowed people to enter the southernmost 300 meter-long portion of the road during the daytime.
“We feel that we have recovered something because an area where we can view cherry blossoms was opened,” said Ryoichi Murai, 61, who had operated a newspaper sales agent and served as a leading member of the organizing committee of the annual cherry blossom festival.
But with 90 percent of the road still closed, the relatively empty streets under the flowering trees now serve as a reminder of the town’s uncertain future.
Murai himself currently lives as an evacuee in Iwaki, 30 km south of Tomioka. Every time he makes a temporary visit to his house, it appears more decayed, he said.
The radiation level around his house is still high. Under the March 25 realignment, the district where his house is located was classified as an area where people are not allowed to live for at least four more years.
Unable to see how he could possibly ever live in the house again, Murai bought land in Iwaki a year ago.
Viewing the cherry blossoms, however, he said, “I want to keep this scenery in my heart as my hometown.”