On March 11, 2011, the Japanese faced a triple disaster: one of the most violent earthquakes ever recorded in the world, which caused a deadly tsunami and then the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Japan on Friday quietly commemorated the triple disaster of March 11, 2011, when one of the most violent earthquakes ever recorded in the world caused a deadly tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. For the first time, no national ceremony was organized this year in memory of the victims, the Japanese State having decided to cease these commemorations after the 10 years of the tragedy last year. But like every March 11, a minute of silence was observed in the country at 2:46 p.m. (05:46 GMT), the time at which, in 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake shook the entire archipelago and was felt ‘in China.
Coming from the depths of the basement of the Pacific Ocean, off the northeast coast of Japan, the terrible tremor caused a tsunami whose waves, sometimes as high as buildings, fell on the region. The heavy human toll of nearly 18,500 dead or missing was mainly caused by the tsunami.
In the areas devastated by the tidal wave, relatives of victims gathered at the edge of the ocean, sometimes at dawn, to gather together as they do every year. Students also flew kites painted with messages of hope, perched on new giant dykes built near the coast, supposed to avoid a disaster of such magnitude in the future, according to images filmed by Japanese television. . But some prefer to avoid these commemorations to try to bury their suffering, like Sadao Kon, a local fisherman whose sister, brother-in-law and nephew were swept away by the tsunami. “I intentionally try not to particularly mark this day. It’s a painful memory that I would like to forget if I could,” the 68-year-old told state broadcaster NHK.
Endless Challenges in Fukushima
Eleven years ago, the raging waves also invaded the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, bordering the Pacific. The cores of three of its reactors went into meltdown, causing the worst civilian nuclear disaster since Chernobyl (Ukraine) in 1986. This accident led to radioactive leaks that forced tens of thousands of residents of the surrounding areas to evacuate their homes in emergency, often permanently. More than 1,650 km2 of the department of Fukushima, or 12% of its area, had been banned from access in the months following the disaster. Since then, intense decontamination work has reduced these uninhabitable areas to 337 km2, or 2.4% of the department.
All the municipalities that had been evacuated have now found inhabitants: since January of this year, Futaba, the last locality near the plant which was still deserted, has welcomed five of its former residents. But their populations remain far below pre-disaster levels, with many former residents unwilling to return for fear of radiation. Up to nearly 165,000 people in the department had evacuated their homes, either by obligation or by personal choice. Local authorities still count 33,365 displaced people today, 80% of whom live outside the department of Fukushima.
In addition to the titanic project of decontamination and dismantling of the nuclear power plant, many other challenges persist, starting with the reputation of local food products, although their safety is rigorously controlled. The image of Fukushima is also likely to suffer from the project, validated last year by the Japanese government, to discharge into the ocean more than a million tons of contaminated water from the devastated nuclear power plant and still containing tritium. . Although this process supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be spread over decades, to avoid releasing too suddenly in the ocean high concentrations of this radionuclide, the project raised indignation from neighboring countries of Japan and local fishermen.
To read : The impressive images of the Fukushima exclusion zone
Beyond those directly affected, the memory of the 2011 tragedy is fading in Japan, according to polls, although the Russian invasion of Ukraine has revived the specter of a nuclear disaster in recent weeks.
Any reproduction prohibited