MOTOMIYA, Fukushima Prefecture--Masasuke Takadama hopes to someday place the ashes of his son, who died in the tsunami two years ago, in the family grave not far from the crippled nuclear plant.
MOTOMIYA, Fukushima Prefecture--Masasuke Takadama hopes to someday place the ashes of his son, who died in the tsunami two years ago, in the family grave not far from the crippled nuclear plant.
His home in the Nakahama district of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, was also swept away by the tsunami spawned by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.
While the town has been off-limits since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, former residents are being allowed to visit three coastal districts, including Nakahama, only during the day from May 28.
But the 59-year-old Takadama said he may not be able to rebuild his home due to the risk of tsunami.
“We cannot let our son rest in his grave,” said Takadama, who is evacuating with his wife to Motomiya in the same prefecture. “We want to pray for the repose of his soul there as soon as possible.”
His third son, Shinobu, died at the age of 27. He was studying English in the United States and returned to Futaba two days before the earthquake.
Shinobu’s remains are on repose at a temple in Aizuwakamatsu, also in Fukushima Prefecture.
Takadama said he still feels regret because he and his wife, ordered to evacuate due to the nuclear accident, could not search for their son on their own.
More than a month after the earthquake, the couple was notified by police that Shinobu’s body had been found amid rubble 500 meters from their home.
Town authorities hope that the rezoning on May 28 will speed up decontamination and infrastructure restoration to enable former town residents to live there again. But many people who lost their homes in the tsunami have bought new ones outside the town.
Takadama, who lost his job as a truck driver after the earthquake, said he will have no employment even if he returns.
Futaba was classified into two zones based on radiation levels. Only 4 percent of the town's population of 6,300 used to live in the three coastal districts.
Entry to the remaining areas will remain strictly limited, and former residents will not be allowed to return at the earliest until March 2017.
A woman in her 40s who used to live in one of those areas is evacuating to Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
She said she intends to become an Iwaki citizen and buy a new home once Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, pays her compensation for the disaster.
In Iwaki, where 24,000 have taken refuge due to the nuclear accident, friction has arisen between residents and evacuees over congestion at hospitals and a shortage of homes.
The woman said her acquaintance from outside the city was told by an Iwaki citizen that evacuees do not have money problems because they can receive compensation.
“I want to escape from being plagued by the feeling that evacuees are seen as someone entitled to compensation without having to do anything on their own,” she said.
Futaba is the last of the nine municipalities within the former no-entry zone, or a 20-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant, that has been redesignated.
Seventy percent of the 77,000 who used to live in the nine municipalities have been allowed to return during the day, but the situation is largely unchanged.
Sadakazu Yuki, 60, who is evacuating to Iwaki, reopened a gas station in central Naraha he took over from his father 30 years ago soon after the town was reclassified in August.
The street was bustling before the nuclear disaster. In the morning, elementary school pupils would talk cheerfully on their way to school, and young parents would watch out for their safety.
Yuki now sees only vehicles for decontamination and infrastructure restoration work in the morning. Those vehicles account for more than 90 percent of his customers.
Homes and stores in the neighborhood remain deserted, and bags containing radioactive waste are piled up everywhere.
Town authorities plan to encourage former residents to return from next spring.
Yuki is pessimistic, however.
“We will not be able to see students going to school anymore,” he said. “I am afraid that only senior citizens would come back.”
Yuki’s second daughter lives in Iwaki with her husband and three children and still has lingering fears about the crippled nuclear plant, which faces decades of decommissioning and dismantling work ahead. The family has bought a new home there.
Yuki said he cannot keep his gas station open unless the town attracts a younger generation of new residents to settle there.
“When decontamination work is over in a couple of years, I might have to close it,” he said.