Entering the living room of Kohei and Tomoko Yamauchi’s house in Naraha is a disconcerting experience. Above the tatami-mat floor, the shelves are lined with rows of kokeshi dolls; to one side is a large display of daruma figures, a traditional harbinger of good fortune. Tomoko’s ancestors look down from framed black-and-white photographs mounted on the wall.
It is hard to imagine a more immaculate home. Yet for four and a half years, the Yamauchis’ house, along with every other home in the picturesque town in Fukushima prefecture, was deserted.
On 12 March 2011, Naraha’s residents were told to evacuate immediately. A day earlier, the north-east coast of Japan had been shaken by one of the most powerful earthquakes in history.
The quake set off a 46ft (14m) tsunami that killed almost 19,000 people and triggered a triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Just as the Yamauchis contemplated the huge loss of life from the tsunami they were confronted with a second, unseen menace – large radiation leaks from Fukushima Daiichi, just 12 miles (19km) to the north.
“Our children told us never to come back to this place,” says Kohei, one of a small number of residents who returned to Naraha last month after it became the first contaminated community in Fukushima prefecture to be declared fit for human habitation.
The stress of moving from one temporary home to another – the Yamauchis have moved six times since the disaster – outweighs any concerns they have about radiation, the 79-year-old adds.
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