Bad Dream - Atomic Nightmare, by Shin Yahiro - Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA)

I spent a few days there, it was very quiet, fine day, plenty of greens and spring wind blew gently. But there was no one. There used to be a lot of farmers, breeders, dairy farmers. It was such a bad dream in the planed evacuation area from radiation in Fukushima.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded in March. Radiation spread widely, especially in the area carried by the wind. The Japanese government had already designated 20Km in radius from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as an off-limit area. Iitate village, Namie town, katsurao village and other areas were designated as planed evacuation areas too.

The average amount radiation per hour is 10 micro sievert per hour (μSv/h). (1μ=1/1000m). People will be exposed to 80 milli sievert(mSv) of radiation when people stay there in one year. 100 mSv of annual radiation budget was said to affect people’s health especially pregnant woman and children.

Almost all people have been evacuated from there, a few people still remain and some animals too. Those who did not leave said “Why must we leave here?”. They surely know the reasons why, but they just aren’t satisfied. There is nothing much they can do however. All production activities have been ceased – they can’t work the fields, make rice, or make milk.

Nobody knows when the nuclear crisis will end, how long the evacuation will be, when they can come back to their homes, and what they will be. Everyone hopes to hell it’s a bad dream.

Photographer: Shin Yahiro
Camera: Nikon D700, Ricoh GR1v
Website: www.shin-yahiro.com