Meltdowns and Waves

Our next interview was with an organization meant to educate mothers about radiation. This area of Japan was not ordered to evacuate, so I was surprised to see just how concerned some of the mothers we talked to ere about radiation. The first mother we talked to spoke about how the radiation was affecting her family dynamic. She seemed extremely concerned about letting her children play outside, but said her husband did not feel the same. She wants to move further inland away from the power plant in Fukushima, but her husband has obligations he can’t move from. It seemed that just the idea of radiation seemed to be tearing her family apart. It was sad to hear that her children barely see their father because she has moved away from the power plant. I can’t believe how much damage the accident had socially and mentally on families.

The next mother that talked to us described how she was afraid to let her children play outside as well. We were shown the levels of radiation in the area and they didn’t seem to be high at all. Yet, they are still so afraid of even the tiniest amounts of radiation. I can’t blame them and think their concerns are somewhat justified. Even exposing children to microscopic amounts of radiation is frightening to think about. The second mother told us she had to be somewhat two faced around some of her friends. She personally believed letting her kids play outside was dangerous, but didn’t want to tell other mothers what to do and so often keeps quiet about the radiation issues.
I think the most interesting place that we went was Tomioka. We toured around the city inside the mandatory evacuation zone with a women who lived there. I could not believe she still cannot return to her home. After more than 5 years, she still can’t return to her home and have it repaired. The first thing I noticed when we entered the town was how empty it was. We were the only ones in the area besides police patrolling and there was an eery silence. Every building we saw still had some kind of earthquake damage and some had windows smashed by looters. The woman who showed us around informed us someone broke into her house and showed us where the window was smashed open. What disturbed me was how casual she told us this and how robbery seemed to be just an average thing in this situation. Our entire walk through of Tomioka felt wrong. I felt like I was invading the privacy of every home we walked but. I could have gone into any home in the black if I wanted to and that is what scared me the most.
The place where I felt most uncomfortable however was at a tsunami memorial site where an elementary school was hit by the tsunami and no one in the school survived. When we got to the memorial it was bright and sunny outside and for the following 30 minutes the only noise was the birds chirping and the ground crunching. Nobody made a sound as we all looked around at the dilapidated remains of the school. At first I followed my professors to where the main memorial was, but I soon felt too uncomfortable and returned to the car. I felt extremely wrong coming to such a personal place and being a foreigner in Japan. I couldn’t understand how much this memorial meant to the Japanese people so I was worried about being disrespectful.