PARIS--A high school girl from Fukushima Prefecture who was forced to evacuate due to the nuclear crisis planted a sakura cherry tree in the French capital as a symbol of hope for the recovery of the Tohoku region.
PARIS--A high school girl from Fukushima Prefecture who was forced to evacuate due to the nuclear crisis planted a sakura cherry tree in the French capital as a symbol of hope for the recovery of the Tohoku region.
"I won't give up hope, just like Tohoku," said 17-year-old Rina Matsumoto, who planted the tree on Sept. 2 on the grounds of the headquarters for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Matsumoto was forced to evacuate from her hometown of Naraha after the onset of the nuclear crisis caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Her father works for Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and she was separated from him for three weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. When she finally saw him again, he appeared pale and exhausted, as he was one of the workers who had been struggling to contain the crisis.
Matsumoto said she was shunned by classmates at her new school because her father worked for TEPCO, but she kept it from her family and told them her classmates were friendly.
Matsumoto currently attends Iwaki High School in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and participates in the
When she heard about a sakura tree from Iwate Prefecture that survived the massive tsunami and blossomed, she said she was inspired by the tree's strength and vitality.
It motivated her and made her determined to show the world the strength of the cherry blossom tree, which she said mirrors herself and other evacuees who have endured the hardships of living away from home.
Matsumoto was determined to plant a cherry blossom tree from Tohoku at the OECD headquarters in Paris, but Tohoku cherry tree seedlings could not be imported to France due to quarantine regulations.
An OECD member eventually came to the rescue and brought Matsumoto a cherry tree from Yamagata Prefecture that was imported to France decades before the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
It may not have been exactly what she had in mind, but Matsumoto was finally able to plant her symbol of hope in Paris.
"I will keep hope until cherry blossoms that were revived from the tsunami bloom here in Paris," she said.