By David McNeill
In autumn last year, Shoji Katsuzo (75) was quietly farming rice, vegetables and a small herd of cattle in the picturesque village of Iitate. Today, he lives in a two-room temporary house 35 kilometers away with his wife Fumi (73). His herd has been slaughtered, his farm abandoned to weeds. He is unlikely to ever earn a working income again, let alone return alive to the home that has been in his family since the 1880s.
Mr. Shoji’s story is just one of at least 80,000 from the irradiated prefecture of Fukushima, home to the disabled Daiichi nuclear power plant, which has been leaking radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling system. Most of those people hastily evacuated from the immediate 20-km vicinity of the crippled nuclear plant and heavily irradiated towns and villages such as Iitate outside the zone, leaving behind all they had.
Continue reading at Blood Money – Fukushima Victims Bitter Over Compensation
Hi David,
The long-term ill effects of what happened to people who live near the area of the nuclear plant is often ignored.
Your story about Mr. Shoji aids in bring this matter to light. He and his family have lost a lot, and I emphatize with him.
What can be done to prevent such disaster is usually an after-thought. If stringent regulations were in place, Mr. Shoji, along with all the others in his area, would still be able to continue with their lives normally.
Thank you for sharing.
Thomas