What I Listen and Saw in Fukushima

I joined a short tour to Fukushima and Iwate this week.

In Iwate, we visited a city that was attacked by tsunami three years ago. The tsunami was more than ten meters high and swept all the things along the shore. Four hundred people died and seventy were lost in the small city. It has been three years since then, but we saw many broken buildings and the vacant lands only with concreet foundations of houses. But the city has made the plans to reconstruct the town and we could see the big construction works. They looked to be overcoming the disaster and start to make the new town and lives.

In Fukushima, we visited the temporary houses for the people who fled from the broken nuclear plant. They were just told to flee from home in Hutaba town, and after that they strayed to a gym in other town, then to relative's houses, to an unused school building in other prefecture... And now they have lived in tiny temporary houses like dog houses for more than two years. They lost everything; houses, jobs, families, friends, communities, and prides, although they are there. What a sorrow and distress! I can't even imagine it. One of the men we listened to said, "They tell us to walk ahead, but we don't know which direction is 'ahead'." We leared how serious their dismay was.

The government and the electricity companies are trying to make us forget the disaster and suffering people. "Wow! Their aim is to use the nuke power and make money.
So, we'll never forget it.