What Have We Done?

So, this is March 11^th, what have we done? That is the question every Japanese have to embrace today. Although the people have been trying to connect to the devastated places, there is a growing feeling of isolation in Tohoku. Separation between hisaisha, or suffered people, and the others has not been eliminated even five years have passed. It is not the government or bureaucrats but the ordinary people who need to make every effort to reconstruct the nation.

There still are 174 thousands of people who lost their houses by tsunami and live in alternative cabins, or evacuated their hometown escaping from biologically negative impact of radiation emitted from broken First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The number has dropped by 400 thousands from the level five years ago. However, this is the country that has scattered quasi-refugees.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has monthly been visiting Tohoku area to encourage the people there. But, his performance has not settle the problem of the displaced people who were looking for their permanent sweet home. Bureaucrats are delivering reconstruction policies, which is not necessarily be useful for the recipients, or local governments, in need of freehand for the budget.

Fukushima, possessing 55 thousands of evacuees in its prefectural area, lost 115 thousands of residents these five years. There are some parts of towns or villages where evacuation order was lifted. But, the people are mostly reluctant to get back home with skepticism on announced level of radiation. One typical tragedy is that the people prefer to live in a shabby small temporary houses rather than getting back their own home.

National government looks to be interested in building huge walls along the coastline to block next great tsunami or long roads to rebuild transportation network. While major general constructors are accumulating profit in reconstruction project, the suffered people are shivering in the coldness of winter. Stock of plastic bags, containing contaminated soil, keep on growing in the backyard of each house.

Sincere hope of the sufferers is “Don’t forget us.” A bunch of journalists visit Tohoku on March 11^th every year. During anniversary reports are fulfilling time and space of news media, Japanese people remember the tragedy and are interested in the situation of the people there. But, after they left, news reports on devastated land would obviously be disappeared and the people got back to their ordinary life.

It is necessary for every citizen to visit Tohoku again and watch what is going on there. They will see the empty land along the coast or ghost towns with high radiation. To make those places return to normal is the responsibility of the Japanese.