On March 11, 2011, a magnitured 9.0 earthquake struck offshore of Tōhoku, now referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. The massive eathquake triggered a tsunami, which ultimately ripped through many of the towns of the eastern coastline, killing over 19,000 people. The tsunami also resulted in a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Powerplant, showering radiation down in the towns nearest to the power plant,  Namie, Futuba, and Okuma. Residents within a 20km radius were evacuated. As the years have passed, there has been a tremendous effort to decontaminate the area, and it is now safe to visit the towns that were evacuated, with some locals finally returning home.

While the decontamination process will likely never fully end, great progress has been made to restore the land to safe levels, with several parts of the affected area seeing radiation no higher than background radiation levels.  If you visit some of these towns, you’ll likely come across Geiger counters and radiation monitors all across, helping to help keep everyone safe and aware of any changes to conditions. 

Fukushima, in particular, is home to resilient towns: Namie, Futaba, and Okuma. Their story is tragic, but their spirit is high, hoping to one day return to normality. You can find remnents of the earthquake and tsunami all arcoss the region, and best viewed at the Former Kadonowaki Elementary School, and the Ukedo Elementary School – both schools that were destroyed by the tsunami, and later converted into museums to carry on their lecacy and inform visitors.