Dateline,
Coming Home to a Nuclear Wasteland
Transcript
LOUDSPEAKER (Translation): This is a Namie
public announcement. The time allowed for entry to Namie
is 6am to 7pm. Please be careful not to run into wild boars while working in
this area.
Silence and decay. A radioactive ghost town, 10km from one of the world's
worst nuclear accidents six years ago. So what happens when the government tells you it is safe to
go back?
HISAO SASAKI, FORMER RESIDENT (Translation): Because small animals and
rats had over-run it the whole house stank. All the stuff in the house was
scattered everywhere. It wasn’t habitable.
Hisao Sasaki's family has lived in Namie for
generations. The invisible threat of radiation is something that he's willing
to live with. He's been busy restoring his home for the reopening of Namie on March 31st. Like thousands of other evacuees, Hisao and his wife have been living in virtual exile in
cramped apartment blocks.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): I’ve never lived away from Namie before. Some may say I am naive, but I found it hard
to live in a small crowded, place like that. I think it is best to live
in your own part of the country and speak your own dialect. I think it is one
of the secrets of good health.
Hisao's heart has never left Namie and he is working
hard to entice his wife, Yuso, back here.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): This is the kitchen
YUSO SASAKI (Translation): It’s beautiful now…..unrecognisable.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): This is the what I told you about.
YUSO SASAKI (Translation): Dishwasher?
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): That’s great, isn’t it?
YUSO SASAKI (Translation): I have to make
something yummy.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): We are the third generation of our family
living here. It's the house that our ancestors built, my father built. If we
let it go, that's it, so I cannot let that happen. As long as
I live here, we have to keep it going.
REPORTER: How do you feel about the risk of another major earthquake and
tsunami, especially when you are living so close to Fukushima Daiichi?
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): Even though they finished decontamination
and told us we can go back the place that triggered this catastrophe is still
unstable, so I still feel anxious.
Hisao's extended family used to live together under one roof, but it is
fragmented, like that of so many other evacuees.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): The place made me feel lonely…there wasn’t
even a bird. But today when we were eating I heard a bird singing. I thought
‘That’s good someone is living here’.
Namie's 21,000 residents are scattered all over Japan, forced away after the
tsunami and nuclear accident. But the spiritual connection to their home
remains. On New Year's Eve, some have travelled back to Namie's
Buddhist temple, joining Hisao to mark the start of
another year. Because the town is about to reopen, there is a lot of media
interest.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): Many people came to the event answering our
call. I really appreciate it. This proves that people have the will to come
back to Namie to live.
Hisao hopes his friends and neighbours will come back, but less than 20% of Namie's former residents say they'll return and they tend
to be old. If its young people don't come back, what kind of hope will Namie have?
NATSUMI SASAKI (Translation): In the future I
would love to come back.
TRANSLATOR (Translation): When in the future?
NATSUMI SASAKI (Translation): When?
TRANSLATOR (Translation): When?
NATSUMI SASAKI (Translation): When I’m older and get married. If
possible, I would love to re-create the home we lost by building the house like
the old one and make the first step in rebuilding a life here.
REPORTER: What do you think are the main barriers in getting young
people to move back?
JUNNA SASAKI (Translation): They’re saying it’s safe. But it they
haven’t shown us specific figures and the effects. That still leaves me
concerned. Living at what radiation level, for how long, causes what effects?
The government have gone to great lengths to convince people it is safe
to return, pouring billions of dollars into decontaminating Namie
by scooping up the radioactive top soil. Levels of radioactivity are now
considered safe for humans. But can living here ever really be safe with
contaminated waste dumps and highly radioactive areas nearby?
Namie's popular mayor, Tamotsu Baba, is one of the key figures driving the
reopening of Fukushima's ghost towns. In Namie, shops
and restaurants have already opened and plans to build a school and medical facilities
are under way.
TAMOTSU BABA, MAYOR (Translation): Our ultimate
goal is to restore Namie to be more like it
was in the past. It is our responsibility. This accident happened in our
generation. We have the responsibility to hand the town to the next
generation.
As the opening of Namie approaches, the idea
of returning brings up conflicting emotions for Shikego
Watanabe.
SHIKEGO WATANABE, FORMER RESIDENT (Translation): This is the Nisshinsha printing shop where we spent our lives. My
husband, son and I ran this small printing shop.
When the earthquake struck, Shikego's first
thoughts were to protect her 92-year-old mother-in-law.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): All I could do was just hold on to
Grandma, it shook three times - the fear I had in those two minutes was
extraordinary. I was screaming, ‘Help! Stop!’ Know what Grandma said?
‘’Shut up!”
Everything has been left pretty much as it was that day. Shikego says it is hard to clean up because she feels
paralysed by the same dilemma that confronts many evacuees. Should she try
rebuilding her life here again or cut her ties to Namie?
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): The reason we don’t take things here
away is that this Buddhist alter contains our souls. It may be just an excuse,
but…our feelings still really belong here.
Shikego's heart is still in Namie, but she can't
imagine starting again in a place like this.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): To put it simply… if I see the reality,
I don't want to return here.
Shikego's getting used to her new life in Iwaki, a city 60km away. The apartment
she shares with her husband, Takemasa, and his
97-year-old mother is small, but comfortable.
Because they're evacuees, it is subsidised by the government, but the housing
subsidy is due to stop a year after Namie reopens.
And, like thousands of other evacuees, the couple will need to make a decision about whether to stay.
TAKEMASA WATANABE (Translation): As the time for returning approaches,
we are psychologically driven into a corner. We must make a
decision as soon as possible.
But this husband and wife have never talked about it with each other.
Even though Shikego wants to stay here, she knows
that Takemasa dreams of going back, but harmony is
prized in Japan and this means not talking about things that could lead to
disagreement.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): We haven’t talked about it haven’t we?
TAKEMASA WATANABE (Translation): We have never talked about it within
the family. Our opinions about returning aren’t the same, our children’s
opinions also differ.
Takemasa would normally make decisions on behalf of the extended family, but the
evacuation has split families and disrupted that tradition. To keep the family
close, he says he's willing to let his son, Hiromichi,
decide. Takemasa's son lives across town with his
wife, Yoshiko, and their two young children. Like many Namie
residents, he worked at the nuclear power plant before the disaster.
REPORTER: How do you guys feel about the reopening of Namie? Have you thought of going back with your
family?
YOSHIKO WATANABE (Translation): It’s a contaminated town. We think
about our children like every family with children. When I think about
their future you wouldn’t want to go back.
Long-term exposure to radiation increases a person's risk of cancer, so
parents with young children, like Hiromichi and
Yoshiko, are understandably nervous.
HIROMICHI WATANABE (Translation): We used to play in places like the
mountains. Those places where we played are contaminated. If I ever go back to Namie I wouldn’t be able to visit my childhood playgrounds.
The government doesn’t decontaminate those areas. It’s been almost 6 years, My daughter was only a few months old when it happened, Now
she is six years old, starting school. I have a family to support. Our
generation has to build a new life in a new place. In
20 years or so, nature will take its course, Namie
will disappear, I can say that it will, definitely.
While Hiromichi feels Namie
will eventually vanish, Hisao Sasaki and some local
men are trying to coax new life from its poisoned soil. Using his own land, Hisao is on a mission to prove that food grown in Namie is safe to eat. This bumper crop of winter vegetables
is the realisation of his dream.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): I wondered if we could grow any crops, the
land was so devastated. Look… this is big!
Food from the Fukushima region has been shunned since the nuclear
accident. Hisao and these farmers are hoping to
change that.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): This is a danger zone. So we’re growing these vegetables as a test crop. We check
them and verify if they’re safe to eat.
Testing has given rice and some vegetables a clean bill of health, but
high levels of radiation have been found in mushrooms and citrus.
REPORTER: Do you eat the vegetables that you are growing yourself?
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): Yes, I do. I test them myself. Since I
grow them myself, I find them tasty. I felt this area was safe, but it still
has a poor reputation. I’m going to keep growing the crops until we are told
they are safe, until everyone, including the people in this area are convinced
of their safety.
In Iwaki, Shikego is using her spare time to
visit other evacuee families where she gets to test the mood about returning to
Namie. As a volunteer social
worker, her job is to offer them emotional support. The work has earned her the
nickname the "mother of Namie". This
morning she is dropping in on Yoshihiko and Kyoko Mukai.
YOSHIHIKO MUKAI (Translation): They’re persimmons from Namie. Eat them, they’re delicious.
The Mukais recently visited their home in Namie and brought back these persimmons from their garden.
YOSHIHIKO MUKAI (Translation): Until last year we had plenty of them but
I was too scared to eat them. So last year, for the
first time, I got them tested at the hospital and they said they were safe.
This radioactive fruit is now considered safe for humans.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): Are they the results? I don’t know
how to read them.
YOSHIHIKO MUKAI (Translation): If it is below this figure, I think it is
ok. I think it’s ok. I am not a specialist, so I don’t know how to explain it.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): Do you let your grandchildren eat them?
YOSHIHIKO MUKAI (Translation): No.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): I bet you don’t! Only you two eat them.
YOSHIHIKO MUKAI (Translation): What I am concerned about is the mountain
area, which is still contaminated. Things like fallen leaves blown this way
might make the contamination go back to what it was.
The Mukai’s, like most of the evacuee families that Shikego
visits will not be moving back to Namie. Out of the
50 families she sees, only one has decided to return. Just last month,
unimaginably high levels of radiation were recorded at the damaged nuclear
plant at Namie's doorstep - a man-made disaster that
will impact families for generations. But Hisao
Sasaki doesn't share the concerns of other evacuees. He knows that his heart
and soul belongs here in Namie. For him, one of the heartbreaking moments of the tragedy of Fukushima is the
fact that his father died an evacuee, far from Namie.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): Here is some water for you Grandpa. Have
some water, Grandpa. I brought water for you. Water for you! I feel sad that
it's only me who can be here. These feelings make my will to come home stronger
and stronger.
Few things mean as much to families here as continuity, the unbroken
chain that connects you to your ancestors and descendent. With his elderly
mother in a nursing home in Iwaki and her son working in a different city, Hisao is pinning his hopes on his son retiring here in 30
years' time.
HISAO SASAKI (Translation): Our family would have been together. But
we’re forced to live apart. It’s the worst possible situation. We are a family
but no longer a family unit.
On New Year's morning, Shikego and Takemasa walk to the sea near their home to watch the
sunrise, an important custom in Japan. For the first time
it seems they are both on the same page, ready to move on with their new life
and their new home.
TAKEMASA WATANABE (Translation): After the disaster, our mood was so
dark. As time has passed, the clouds have gradually cleared
to create a space in our minds where we’re beginning to accept things.
SHIKEGO WATANABE (Translation): Last year was the first time I saw the
sun clear of clouds. Until then my heart was so heavy, that I couldn’t say,
“Happy New Year”. Your oracle says, “Great luck!” Oh, great luck! That’s
wonderful. Lucky you.
With thousands of evacuee families in Japan torn apart after the
disaster, the Watanabes feel so fortunate to be so
close.
TAKEMASA WATANABE (Translation): I feel very lucky to be able to visit
the shrine with my whole family for the new year’s prayers. Not many people can
do so with three generations of family members.
reporter/camera
amos roberts
story producer
kylie grey
research
anna watanabe
fixer/research
kiwa wakabayashi
story editor
simon phegan
translations
hiroko
moore
shingo usama
miyuki watanabe
14th March 2017