Tuesday’s reopening of Miyakoji will mark a tiny step for Japan as it seeks to recover from the Fukushima disaster and a major milestone for the 357 registered residents of the district – most of whom the city hopes will go back.
But homesick evacuees have mixed feelings about returning to Miyakoji, set amid rolling hills and rice paddies, a sign of how difficult the path back to normality will be for those forced from their homes by the accident.
Many families with young children are torn over what to do, one city official acknowledged.
“Young people won’t return,” said Kitaro Saito, a man in his early 60s, who opposed lifting the ban and had no intention of going home yet.
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But homesick evacuees have mixed feelings about returning to Miyakoji, set amid rolling hills and rice paddies, a sign of how difficult the path back to normality will be for those forced from their homes by the accident.Many families with young children are torn over what to do, one city official acknowledged.
“Young people won’t return,” said Kitaro Saito, a man in his early 60s, who opposed lifting the ban and had no intention of going home yet.
“Relatives are arguing over what to do” and friends disagree, he said, warming his hands outside his temporary home among rows of other one-room trailers in a Tamura parking lot. “The town will be broken up.”
Saito said he wanted to go back to his large hillside house in Miyakoji, but thinks the government is using residents as “guinea pigs” to test whether larger returns are possible.
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