I evacuated to Fukushima city, and then moved to Sendai at my daughter’s apartment. While in Fukushima, I wore a raincoat of a smooth surface and the masks to avoid the radioactive contamination. When accompanying my mother to the university hospital, I saw a notice, “Those who came from Minamisoma, please take a screening.” So, I went to take the examination with my family. High level of radiation was measured on my shoes and they were confiscated then and there. The shoes had been placed in the entrance of my daughter’s small apartment for a few days. Her child was one year old. My family said nothing. But, we had a moment of frozen atmosphere. Please imagine my complex feeling at that time. I felt so sorry that I took the radioactivity in, although it was not my fault.
After going through these experiences, we live normally in Minamisoma now. The radiation doses average 0.4 μSv/h (Note: In 2015, the radiation doses have decreased below 0.1 to 0.3 μSv/h in the Haramachi district.) When the doses are 0.1 to 0.2 μSv/h, we think that we can let children play outside. The whole body counter is equipped and the radiation doses of all the foodstuffs are measured. From the day when the residents were permitted to enter into the 20 km-radius, those who are from Odaka often go and see their houses from the temporary housing, and the town has become active.
Unconsciously, everyone senses that the radiation, invisible and of low doses, is in the air and influences the cells of a human body. Increasingly, there are people who become ill because they are mentally tired.
I myself realized, going through these experiences, that human beings are strong, and do not lose energy to live anywhere, while we become very weak and vulnerable if we are isolated and cut off from our bond. A man committed suicide when he returned home after entering the 20 km-radius was admitted. He grew pessimistic about life which he thought would never be the same as before. He had saddled with his problems and worries all alone and had no one to support him.
Moreover, I am concerned about the children. Listening to grown-ups talking, children take what they hear straight and suffer. We adults talk about radioactivity all day long, vent our anger on Tokyo Electric Power Company and have been complaining bitterly about that the Government has done nothing for us. The children listen to these squarely. They care about their parents more than they know, suffer and hate what troubles their parents purely and simply. We are truly apprehensive that we bring them up to hate their own country unawares. Moreover, there is some emptiness in this country now.
But young people think it good enough to live their own life properly day by day with dreams and hopes in their hearts. Perhaps unconsciously, thinking also that it all depends on their initiatives, they put their ideas into action. I think it important to support and encourage them without judging them by our conservative mindset.