Towns in south of Fukushima Prefecture, within 25 miles of the contaminated nuclear plant, were cutoff until last Monday when the Tokiwa Road reopened. Because of the closure, neither goods, nor reporters were able to reached the people there, and because of radiation concerns, volunteer aid teams had not come either.
Shelter Life
Just 28 miles away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, about 120 survivors now live in a city-owned gymnasium in the southern city of Iwaki, in Fukushima.
With each aftershock, the whole structure of the Taira Gym shakes from the floor to the ceiling with loud cracking noises. It sounds louder at night. One of those sheltered in the gym, Mrs. Yoshiko Date, 65, said, “Each time it shakes, someone shouts loudly. I have been awoken by that scream many times.”
Physical comforts are scarce in the shelter, evacuees sleep on the floor with only a few thin layers of felt between their heads and the ground.
And they are cold. Although equipped with a heating system, the shelter is not heated because the surrounding roads have been destroyed and there is no way to bring more fuel oil.
The rough physical conditions are compounding the mental trauma suffered by shelter residents. Illustrating the tensions, one of the evacuees muttered, “Useless heating equipment, which we cannot switch on, makes us feel even colder just by watching it.”
Eighty percent of residents in the vicinity of Iwaki still don’t have water. It is not easy to wash clothes and other utensils, and staying clean is difficult.
Water is so limited there is not even enough to flush. A notice in the bathroom of the shelter reads, “After using the toilet, put the water in the tank by yourself.” Out of disgust, some have people have stopped using the toilet and are trying to avoid drinking.
Even fresh air is becoming a luxury for the disaster survivors. More and more people have stopped going outdoors and people are afraid to open their windows for fresh air. On March 21 it rained all day in Fukushima and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency warned people to try “not to get wet” to avoid contact with radioactive material in the rainwater.
Volunteer Stress
Human relationships in the shelters are complex as volunteers and evacuees are adjusting to a lifestyle that requires them to share unusual amounts of time and space with strangers.
In their efforts to care for people in the shelters, volunteers and managers are also experiencing their share of stress. One volunteer from another shelter in Iwaki reported that relief aid was being poorly handled and those in charge were not managing things well according to the people in the shelter. Mr. Fukuji Hikariyama, 60, who came from Tokyo to volunteer, said he asked the evacuees in the shelter what they were lacking; they reported dissatisfaction with those managing the shelter. Hikariyama said that people told him that managers “don’t deliver food and blankets equally. They don’t greet. They don’t communicate with people in the shelter.”
After asking these questions, Hikariyama, was severely warned by managers and told “not to take actions voluntarily,” because “this would make it more difficult for us to manage,” he said. Since then, his movements within the building have been watched closely. Management at the shelter would not comment.
Read More...Uncertain Futures
Uncertain Futures
“Everyone is having a hard time. It cannot be helped,” said a woman in her 40s, from Hiranomachi, a district of Iwaki. Located about 12 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor and about six miles from the Daini Nuclear Reactor, Hiranomachi has been evacuated.
Mrs. Kayo Sato (not her real name) has bad legs and cannot move very well. Her husband, also in his forties, and their child who is in second grade, have evacuated to his sister’s house. Her husband telephoned her and told her that he cannot stay at his sister’s too much longer. He said he would like to come get Mrs. Sato but it is difficult to get gasoline. “I have no idea how many more months I will have to live in this shelter,“ Mrs. Sato said, adding, ”It cannot be helped because I have no other place to go.”
Ghost Towns
After visiting the shelter in the gym, the reporter went to Iwaki’s train station. Areas around the station are normally busy with local people and tourists. Now however, most shops, supermarkets, convenience stores, hotels, and pubs are closed. Unmoving taxis were lined up as if asleep at the taxi rack near the station.
One resident, Yukiko Kamada, 54, who had just returned from evacuation at her daughter’s in Tokyo said she evacuated because she was afraid nuclear radiation. “I have no idea if the situation is better now because I don’t fully understand the influence of radioactivity on humans,” she said. She had returned to Iwaki to see her parents who don’t want to leave their hometown. “I would like them to move to Tokyo, but they don’t want to move. So I have decided to come to see them.”
“I don’t think I can stay here,“ she added. ”This is a ghost town. People are all scattered to different places.”
According to city officials, the population of Iwaki City was 340,000 before the earthquake. Afterwards 4,555 people were evacuated, however those who voluntarily moved to different prefectures are not considered evacuees and are not counted in the 4,555 figure.
According to the Japanese police, the death toll was just over 700 in Fukushima, which is low compared to the over 5,000 killed in smaller Miyagi Prefecture, located above Fukushima in the northeast, which had the highest death toll. However, with over 131,000 evacuees, Fukushima has had more people flee than Miyagi, which counted just over 113,000 evacuated. Data seems to indicate that people have evacuated to avoid nuclear radiation.
The Japan government has ordered all people within 12 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor to evacuate. And almost the entire populations from several towns, Namie-machi, Tomiok-amachi, and Okuma-machi, as well as others, have picked up and moved to other towns or prefectures, leaving the towns completely deserted. The government has not said when the evacuation order will be removed. Hiromi Ito, 40, who evacuated from the town of Tomioka-machi to the gym in Iwaki said she heard that the order may not be lifted for six months, “I have no idea how long I will have to carry on with this evacuation life,” she sighed.
As for the effect of radioactive materials released from the accidents, the head of the French Nuclear Safety Authority said, “There is a possibility that it will last for decades.”
He also indicated, “The affect will not be contained within a 20 km [12.4 mi] range.”
