Long-term evacuation after the nuclear accident in Fukushima ～Different daily living under low-dose radioactive suffering～

Abstract

One year has passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant accident. Even currently, more than 150,000 evacuees in Fukushima Prefecture are forced to leave their home and to move throughout Japan. Because of the limited space of temporary housing and the weakening of personal ties in local communities, many families need to move and have separate lives. As a consequence, Fukushima has a serious shortage of caregivers for the elderly. There have been more than 1,300 disaster-related deaths due to shock and stress after long-distance drifts from town to town. Most of the victims were the elderly, who collapsed, caught pneumonia, suffered stroke and heart attack. Concerns about the safety of low-dose radiation exposure deprived the elderly oi important contact with playing outside with their grandchildren in Fukushima. Fear of invisible radioactive contamination inactivated outdoor activities such as farming, dairy, fishing, gardening, hiking and wild-vegetable/mushroom hunting, although most of these activities have been traditionally supported by the wisdom of the elderly. Several recent questionnaire investigations revealed that older evacuees wish to go home even if the environment has significant contamination. In contrast, more than half of younger generation with small children have a different attitude. Nuclear accident brought serious social pains although it did not acutely hurt our bodies. © 2013 The Japan Geriatrics Society.