Tamura, Japan (dpa) – Miyoko Watanabe was wary of living near a nuclear power plant even before the Fukushima disaster, alarmed by movies and books in her childhood.
“I only graduated from junior high school, but I read a lot of books,” said Watanabe, who is from the small town of Miyakoji, about 220 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.
The town is less than 30 kilometres west of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, suffering three meltdowns and spewing radioactive material into the environment.
Watanabe confronted officials and some neighbours over the accident. “I went up to them and asked in tears, ‘You told us the plant is safe. What was that all about?’” she said.
She was evacuated with her family to Tamura, 50 kilometres from the stricken plant, and the administrative centre of the municipality that covers Miyakoji.
The evacuation order on her home was lifted by the end of that year, but she has refused to go back, even after the municipality authorized returns to the rest of Miyakoji that was within the 20-kilometre no-go zone, on April 1.
Authorities and locals are not taking the radiation risk seriously enough in the wake of Japan’s worst nuclear accident, she said.
Watanabe considered moving further away, but decided against it because her granddaughter did not want to leave her friends.
Tamura Mayor Yukei Tomitsuka said lifting the order in April was “one step forward” towards the region’s rehabilitation, and told residents that schools and houses were being decontaminated.
“I made the decision because I believed it was better for those who wanted to return to their homes,” the mayor said.
Radiation in the affected area was lower than in some areas outside the zone, he said.
Critics counter that the levels should not be the only measure of safety, pointing to the instability of the stricken plant, and to the risk of rain bringing contaminated runoff from surrounding mountains back into decontaminated residential areas.
The decision to lift the no-go zone means the 355 affected residents of Miyakoji will only receive their monthly compensation of 100,000 yen (980 dollars) for another year. Those who choose to return will get a one-off payment of 900,000 yen.
As of April, 27 of them have returned, a city official said.
Rimiko Nomita said she was glad to get back and re-open her Farm House Miyakoji inn, after years in a Tamura apartment where she was evacuated.
The guest house is less than 20 kilometres from the plant, but customers were keen to return, she said.
The important thing was for residents to regain their composure after the disaster, she said.
She moved to the area 20 years ago from Yokohama, south of Tokyo, for the lifestyle. “This is a homey neighbourhood and people here are very warm and friendly,” Nomita said.
Local farmer Yoshio Ishii has also returned to his land, but expressed greater concern about radioactive contamination, and said he would not recommend that young people live in the area now.
Since his return, Ishii has been working on his paddy fields as he wants to start growing rice next year. The fields had to be abandoned after the disaster.
But he fears that many consumers will avoid rice grown in Fukushima, and is expecting to sell most of his crop for animal feed, he said.
“I wonder if people would want rice from here, especially from this area within the 20 kilometres from the plant,” the farmer said.
But he said it was a relief to be back out on the paddies after he and his wife were cooped up in prefabricated temporary housing for nearly 3 years.
Watanabe said the officials were leaving it up to residents to rebuild their lives and communities after throwing a lot of money at the clean-up operation. “That’s simply impossible,” she said.
The government let residents return because they “wanted to downplay the magnitude of the nuclear disaster,” Watanabe said.
Takehiko Kambayashi 