Return to Namie ?

 March 10, 2018

Photo Journal: Rare return

(Mainichi)

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180310/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

An 83-year-old woman, Reiko Konno, is seen inside her old home in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in a "difficult-to-return" zone, for the first time in about a year, on Feb. 26, 2018. The Tsushima district of the town, where Konno's house is located, was categorized as a zone of this type after the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011. The district includes four settlements, each of which has its own special dance for rice planting. However, the dance connected to Konno's settlement has only been performed once since the outbreak of the nuclear disaster, and there are no specific plans to resume it. "Being the age I am, I've basically given up on coming back to Namie. However, I really don't want this house to be demolished," Konno said in a trembling voice, wiping her tears away time and time again. (Mainichi)