Victims of Fukushima still pay for failures of Japan’s government

On the 11th of March 2011, Japan’s Triple Disaster occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern coastal region of Japan. It was so powerful that it not only shifted the Earth’s axis by 10 to 25 centimetres, but also triggered a deadly tsunami which destroyed the coastal areas of Tohoku and southern Hokkaido; claiming the lives of nearly 20,000 people, 70,000 homes and devastating communities. The prefecture of Miyagi alone lost 7% of its population.

Although fewer than 2,000 residents of Fukushima died from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, lethal radiation spread across Japan’s third largest prefecture following the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The meltdown was primarily due to a power loss in the aftermath of the natural disaster.

Despite the government’s initial response to the nuclear accident being labelled ‘exemplary’ by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the events which followed were catastrophic. On the 12th of March, over 109,000 people within a 20 kilometre radius of the disaster were forced to evacuate. However, because the government issued poorly organised evacuation orders containing no sense of proper direction, residents soon found themselves in worse situations than they were already in. Eventually, circumstances became so dire, and the lack of government support became so apparent that aid was sought for the victims of Fukushima through social media where citizens would help locate displaced and deceased family members and friends.

Victims suffered not only as a result of relocation but the widespread fear of radiation, especially after the government announced radioactive caesium had been found in every prefecture following the event. Residents of Fukushima were left jobless, homeless and hopeless after most were unable to find work. Many women were unable to wed or have children since they were regarded as ‘tainted’, and relocated children were being shunned by peers at school.

Residents did not only have to endure any harmful side effects of radiation, but also the stress from relocation and the ongoing uncertainty of unseen toxicants manifesting themselves as physical ailments. Moreover, there was a spike in suicides by those who had lost their families and livelihoods. In the three prefectures of Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi, there were 151 suicides in May 2011 alone.

Unfortunately up till this day in 2021, ten years later, a majority of the Japanese in the Tohoku region have been unable to move back home and carry on with their lives. Evacuation orders are still in effect for the 340 square kilometres of “difficult-to-return” zones and impacting over 35,000 people. All that remain are ghost towns. The decommissioning of the plant itself is expected to take over 30 years.

Although currently visiting the safe zones of Fukushima in order to actively take steps towards helping the affected communities is nearly impossible during a global pandemic, what we can do is educate ourselves and recognise the efforts of residents instead of “pitying from afar and avoiding up close”, therefore shifting societal attitudes for the better.