With the six-month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami looming, I headed back north with Guardian correspondent Justin McCurry and photojournalist Rob Gilhooly. Wearing radiation suits and masks, we headed into the 20km exclusion zone with busloads of residents, returning to their homes for their first time since the disaster. The Minstry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has been organizing these trips for months now, allowing the residents a window of only two hours to get in, collect some belongings and leave. The atmospheric radiation is still high in some of these areas. We travelled to Okuma, a town only about 1.5 kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
It's been only six months since the disaster but a wet summer has meant that the weeds have already started reclaiming the area. By the time the place is inhabitable again, the roads and homes may be completely taken back by nature.
You can see the video on the Guardian website here.
Justin McCurry's article is here.
And a slideshow of Rob Gilhooly's photos is here.
- Michael Condon
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