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Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko stocked up on fresh vegetables when they visited Fukushima Prefecture exactly two months after the nuclear accident triggered by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
Any fears they had about radiation are not recorded.
Their first stop was an evacuation center set up at the Azuma gymnasium in Fukushima city. Because the gymnasium was in the western part of the city, airborne radiation levels were comparatively low.
Takao Kikori, a Fukushima prefectural government official, was anxious about welcoming the imperial couple when radiation was still a major concern.
However, an Imperial Household Agency official told him, "Their Majesties feel there will be no problem in visiting areas where people are still living."
Kikori, now 57, initially proposed that the couple visit a central area, rather than coastal locations that were much closer to the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
An agency official said the imperial couple wanted to visit a coastal area that had been inundated by tsunami. However, the official also said the couple would be using a Self-Defense Forces helicopter to get around in Fukushima.
Kikori was relieved to hear that as radiation exposure would be less of a concern.
Shingo Haketa, the grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, pondered whether the imperial couple should wear protective gear.
Haketa, now 72, quoted the imperial couple as saying, "There would be no need for excessive caution for ourselves if local residents are going about their daily lives without protective clothing."
In the event, the couple wore their normal clothes throughout the visit.
Fukushima Mayor Takanori Seto had mixed feelings about welcoming the couple to his city. While many of the evacuees were from the coastal part of Fukushima that experienced so much tsunami damage as well as radiation from the nuclear accident, residents of his city also faced similar concerns about radiation exposure.
"Damage from radiation is fundamentally different from tsunami damage," Seto, now 67, said. "Because it is invisible, concerns are amplified. It eats at people's souls and there are negative psychological effects, even with the passage of time. For that reason, it becomes a major barrier to reconstruction."
A pitch was made for the imperial couple to stay overnight, but the idea was shelved because there was no place adequate to accommodate them. Agency officials also initially said not to worry about providing lunch because "bento" box edibles were arriving from Tokyo.
In the end, however, the imperial couple tucked in with locals. Seto lunched with the imperial couple.
"The emperor mentioned that Fukushima was known for its fruit, such as peaches, and he expressed concern about negative publicity that could hurt such produce," Seto said.
The imperial couple had made it known beforehand that they wanted to purchase vegetables grown in Fukushima to take back to Tokyo.
The prefectural government prepared three boxes containing various produce: strawberries, broccoli and other items.
One box was taken back to the Imperial Palace and the two others ended up with Crown Prince Naruhito's family and Prince Fumihito's family.
The final stop in Fukushima Prefecture was the Nakamura Daini Elementary School in Soma. As the imperial couple rode in the SDF helicopter, they also observed a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., the exact time two months earlier when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck the Tohoku region.
After meeting with evacuees at the elementary school, Akihito and Michiko thanked local police, firefighters and volunteers who had assembled at the entrance hall.
Among those who talked to the imperial couple was Toshiaki Kainuma, commander of the 13th Brigade of the Ground SDF based in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Akihito told Kainuma, now 57, "Thank you for all of your efforts to help victims of this calamity."
The 13th Brigade arrived in Soma on March 15, 2011. From May 4, members of the brigade entered Namie, which had been designated a no-entry zone because it fell within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant while radioactive materials were spewing. Brigade members searched for the missing and removed rubble washed inland by the tsunami.
They traveled one hour from their base camp to enter the 20-km radius and worked for two hours wearing protective gear before returning to the camp to undergo testing for radiation exposure.
The imperial couple peppered Kainuma with questions.
Akihito asked, "Aren't family members of brigade members worried because they enter the 20-km zone?"
Kainuma responded, "We held an explanatory meeting beforehand for family members and explained that brigade members would be all right because they would wear protective clothing."
Michiko asked, "What sort of measures are you taking against radiation?"
Kainuma said, "We have established maximum accumulated exposure levels for women members to protect their bodies."
Michiko also asked, "What are you doing about health maintenance and psychological care?"
Kainuma was struck by the concern shown by the imperial couple about brigade members as this was a time when the psychological stress they were experiencing was becoming a major issue.
Younger members were not familiar with seeing so many dead bodies. In disaster-stricken areas, it was not uncommon to come across bodies that were severely disfigured or to handle the corpses of infants.
To shield SDF members from the psychological burden, teams of doctors and clinical psychologists had been formed to conduct counseling meetings.
Amid a light drizzle, the imperial couple visited the Haragama and Obama districts of Soma near the coast. When they were told tsunami had claimed 146 lives as of May 11, 2011, the imperial couple folded their umbrellas and bowed silently in the direction of those areas.
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