Eleven years after the tsunami, residents are gradually returning to Fukushima and are even making wine. But the energy crisis is firing up the nuclear debate again.
It is a snapshot of a disaster frozen in time. Textbooks, pens, desks and chairs are scattered on the floor of an abandoned classroom.
The empty corridors of the now-derelict school in Futaba, one of the closest towns to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, are a haunting reminder of Japan’s worst diaster since World War II. Some small business owners are returning, attracted by government programs to bring workers to the area and cheap land. However, many of the original residents have settled elsewhere and are reluctant to return to towns where basic infrastructure is lacking and where the memories of a tragedy that killed loved ones still haunt the deserted streets.
A fire truck damaged in the 2011 tsunami on display at the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum.Abandoned buildings in the Japanese town of Futaba that was abandoned after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster.Japan’s sanctions on Russia following the Ukraine invasion have exacerbated the fragility of the country’s energy supplies,
“About 30 minutes after the earthquake it turned cold and there was complete dark even though it was 4.30pm in the afternoon. The tsunami was so high and the water was very black, very dark, It was like everything was in slow motion,” he recalls.Futaba is one of the last of a dozen towns that were designed “no-go” zones after the disaster due to concerns about high radiation levels.
“This town has been through so much. We wanted to start thinking about the future and what the town could be like 100 years from now.,” Endo says. While he admits growing wine grapes on land which was not considered habitable just five years earlier might sound crazy, he says there are precedents overseas.