IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--On the morning of the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Masashi Yoshida offered water and freshly cooked rice to his late wife's altar in his apartment here.
IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--On the morning of the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Masashi Yoshida offered water and freshly cooked rice to his late wife's altar in his apartment here.
He spoke to Kimie, who is in a wedding dress in a portrait. “I am leaving," he said. "Please watch over me.”
He then headed for a memorial service sponsored by the government.
Yoshida, 51, is one of 7,000 people working at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where he was at on the day the quake and tsunami triggered the nuclear accident.
Kimie’s body was later found about 500 meters from their home in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, about a month later.
“She may have been alive if I had searched for her immediately after the tsunami struck,” Yoshida said.
He holds deep regrets and some resentment. “If it had not been for the nuclear plant accident. ...”
Yoshida was born and raised in Futaba, one of the two municipalities that host the nuclear plant. He lost Kimie, then 42, to the tsunami spawned by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake.
On that day, Yoshida was working at an office of his TEPCO-affiliated company in the Fukushima No. 1 plant complex when the earthquake struck.
His company told its employees at the plant to return home. Driving on higher ground, Yoshida saw that his house was gone.
The central government issued an evacuation order to residents around the plant.
Unable to find Kimie, Masashi moved from one place to another, including Minami-Soma in Fukushima Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture.
He returned to work after two months, partly because he wanted to keep his mind busy and off his grief.
His job included material procurement duties, and he was stationed at J-Village, a soccer facility before it was used as a base station for workers responding to the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident.
In December, he started working on-site at the Fukushima plant.
His hometown neighborhood is covered with overgrown weeds and debris. Search efforts for missing people are still ongoing. He joins in the searches with the regret that he was not able to find his wife in 2011.
Yoshida lives by himself. He awakens at 4:30 a.m. on weekdays and heads for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. He purchases premade foods for dinner at the supermarket.
On chilly days, he misses Kimie’s favorite, “nabe” hot-pot dishes cooked at the table.
Upon graduation from high school, Yoshida was employed by a TEPCO-related company and assigned to the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
When he was introduced to Kimie by a friend, he was attracted by her smile. They were married in May 2000.
The couple would go shopping together and eat out on her birthday and their wedding anniversary.
Yoshida continues to work at the Fukushima plant with mixed emotions--an attachment to his employer of 30 years, and gratitude for the support it has provided the community, along with his livelihood.
However, lingering resentment remains in Yoshida that he was unable to save his wife.
“I cannot explain the feeling,” he said.