福岛核事故现场探访特别节目之十二：专访大熊町役场•企画调整课科长 幾橋功

福岛核事故现场探访特别节目之十二：专访大熊町役场•企画调整课科长 幾橋功

“While we are here interviewing, we see that many houses are still empty and uninhabited.” “And people outside might not dare to come back.” “They get off work at a quarter past five.” “So maybe they should work a little overtime.” “For you, is your goal to have everyone move back?”

“Or is it to let them decide voluntarily?” “What is your own goal for your work?” “For us,” “because there are still people who hope to return here,” “so we are pushing forward with infrastructure work to allow residents to live here normally.”

“To maintain life, we need medical welfare, shopping environment, education, and other facilities.” “Without these, they cannot return.” “The central area of Okuma town was only lifted from evacuation orders last June.” “So, inside Okuma town,” “many houses that were there before were demolished due to decontamination work.”

“I think ultimately how many people can return depends on our efforts in the future.” “So when did the townspeople start to move back gradually?” “In April of Heisei 31 (2019).” “This area in Okuma town is called the Okawara district.” “The Okawara district, and the Nakayashiki district in the mountainous area,”

“these two districts were lifted from evacuation orders.” “When did your town office start moving back to Okuma town?” “This town office was built…” “I started working here, which was from May of that year.” “Reiwa 1 (2019).” “So you restarted work here, right?” “So you were working outside for nearly eight years.” “Yes.”

“The children have also grown up.” “We know that Okuma town is one of the most severely affected areas in the Fukushima nuclear accident.” “At that time, how many villagers were relocated to other places for refuge?” “The morning after the Great East Japan Earthquake,” “the country issued an evacuation order for the entire town.”

“At that time, there were 11,500 residents here,” “11,500 residents all evacuated from Okuma town to various places across the country.” “Did everyone leave?” “Where were these evacuated villagers resettled after they moved out of Okuma town?” “After the earthquake, the north and south were impassable due to the tsunami.”

“So, anyway, we had to head west first.” “Going west, the nearby Tamura City had prepared shelters.” “So we instructed the buses to just head west.” “From Okuma town, just head west.” “If one place is full, move on to the next.” “Continue searching and heading west in this way.”

“From the information we have, the furthest refuge was in Koriyama City.” “Would there be many people who, although they left this place,” He was unaffected by natural disasters during his refuge. But life there also encountered some difficulties. Yes. At that time, we hadn’t heard that the nuclear power station was particularly dangerous.

During the evacuation, everyone left with the mindset of “we’ll be able to return soon.” Until the afternoon of March 12th, before the explosion of Reactor No. 1 at the nuclear plant. We all thought we could return to Okuma Town soon. Regarding employment, we weren’t too worried initially when taking refuge.

When everyone realized they couldn’t return there, many problems emerged, such as losing their jobs. Children had no school to attend, no place to live. Many residents came to report these issues. Did the county or the state later introduce policies to help these people?

First of all, for housing, it was necessary to build temporary residences. Normally, if a disaster occurred in Okuma Town, we, the staff of Okuma Town Office, could plan to use which land in Okuma Town to build residences. But we were displaced to Aizuwakamatsu City, we couldn’t make plans.

For this reason, the Fukushima Prefectural Government and Aizuwakamatsu City coordinated to provide us with land. We used this land to build temporary housing. These are the helps provided by Fukushima Prefecture. Regarding schools, Aizuwakamatsu City provided a building of a previously closed school. With the help of Aizuwakamatsu City,

We reopened kindergartens, elementary schools, and middle schools in Aizuwakamatsu City. This solved the schooling issue for the children who evacuated to Aizuwakamatsu City. Was this their first time evacuating, and later they stayed outside for about 10 years? Were their jobs arranged by you, or did they find them on their own?

Regarding jobs, we actually couldn’t employ them directly. So the state, through employment agencies, didn’t directly introduce jobs to them. Instead, classes were opened to enhance their skills, helping them obtain various qualifications. This assistance was also provided by the state. Did you live here before the earthquake? Yes.

Then, among your colleagues in the office here, are most living in this place or elsewhere? Less than half of the colleagues living in Okuma Town. Some had their homes demolished for decontamination work. Others’ places of residence haven’t completed the decontamination work yet. So many still commute here from outside Okuma Town.

How far is this place from the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant incident in a straight line? About seven or eight kilometers. Eight kilometers. Have you heard the recent news about them discharging treated water into the sea? I know about that.

How do you, as former affected villagers, view Tokyo Electric’s action of discharging water into the sea? Our stance is to hope the state can implement safety measures based on scientific evidence. This is our stance. Are the residents here somewhat worried about this action? “I haven’t directly received such feedback.”

“I haven’t heard that this area was affected by the nuclear leak from TEPCO back then.” “Did they provide any compensation or assistance for your recovery plans?” “According to the national compensation scheme,” “Tokyo Electric Power has already compensated the affected residents.” “So I understand they should also compensate for the damage to public facilities.”

“Including your original hospitals and schools that are no longer usable.” “Now you must spend your own money to rebuild them.” “Then logically speaking, shouldn’t TEPCO also give you some compensation?” “Regarding government-owned buildings, like gymnasiums, civic halls,” “these buildings were abandoned due to the nuclear accident.”

“According to the national plan, Tokyo Electric Power has also compensated.” “So how many residents are living here now?” “The number of residents is…” “I can’t remember the exact number.” “About 300 people, I guess.” “That’s still far from the number of people who originally lived here.” “Yes, specifically, there are 300 residents registered here.”

“But there are also some people who don’t have a residency registration but live in Okuma Town.” “So the actual number of people living in Okuma Town is about 1000.” “Before the earthquake…” “It’s probably impossible to return to the pre-earthquake state.” “Whether it’s the population or the industry,”

“it’s already very difficult to return to the levels before the earthquake.” “Rebuilding the same things is very difficult.” “But I think it’s still possible to create an environment that attracts people to live in a different form.”

“But if it takes too long, like some people have settled outside and their children have grown up,” “the willingness to return may gradually decrease.” “That is to say, if it takes too long, even if it’s eventually rebuilt,” “the emotional ties between these people and Okuma Town will also gradually fade.”

“That’s indeed the case.” “The longer the evacuation period, the corresponding decrease in the number of returnees.” “Some nearby areas had their evacuation orders lifted earlier than us,” “so more people returned there.” “Places like Okuma Town and Futaba Town’s central areas only recently had their evacuation orders lifted.”

“As a result, people have been evacuated for twelve years.” “They’ve already established their lives in the evacuation locations.” “Bought land, built houses, found jobs, children went to school.” “In this way, many people want to return but can’t.” “As you said, very few people are returning.” “However, even so, some elderly and retired people,”

“still hope to return to their hometown.” “We still hope to prepare the environment for their return.” “In order to keep Okuma Town going,” “not only relying on returnees,” “but also needing to attract those who want to start new ventures in Okuma Town to move here.” “By these means, build a new Okuma Town.”

“I think you experienced the earthquake 12 years ago, including nuclear contamination.” “At that time, you were both a witness and a government official.” “I think you must have experienced a lot over the past 12 years.” “How do you view this disaster?” “I happened to be working as a municipal employee at that time.”

“Looking back, these twelve years really flew by.” “But I also experienced a lot of things.” “I still think that this accident could have been avoided.” “Not just Okuma Town, those areas affected by the nuclear power plant accident,” “in the process of rebuilding their respective areas, also learned a lot of lessons.”

“I hope these experiences can be put to use in the future.” “You just said that the past 12 years were unforgettable.” “Could you tell us about the most difficult moment during the past 12 years?” “What was the hardest time?” “This is my personal experience.”

“At the time of the earthquake, my son was just about to enter junior high school.” “My daughter was in the fourth grade going into the fifth.” “My son was particularly looking forward to junior high.” “Uniforms, bicycles were all ready.” “Just waiting for school to start in April.”

“Then because of the earthquake, we had to evacuate.” “The school was gone, although it reopened in Aizuwakamatsu City.” “In such circumstances, the children seemed quite happy.” “We adults were worrying about what to do tomorrow.” “The children actually felt the same, but they still lived happily.”

“Seeing this situation, knowing I was powerless to do anything,” “I felt very frustrated and sad at that time.” “You said you felt especially helpless facing your children’s state.” “How did you deal with your sense of helplessness at that time?” “Now looking back, I feel that was a particularly sad period.”

“But actually, at that time, there wasn’t even time to feel sad.” “Every day new things happened, every day the future was unpredictable.” “What to do tomorrow, and then the day after tomorrow.” “Every day was busy.” “So I couldn’t calm down and think, ‘Today is so difficult, so hard.'”

“Every day there was work to be done.” “Expressing gratitude to each other.”

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大熊町一个距离福岛核事故原爆点仅8公里的小镇，一夜之间因为疏散撤离从此成为了一座废城。而今12年后的灾后重建，看似百废待兴，却也仍是步履蹒跚。

当初的灾民如何撤离？
他们又如何继续自己的生活？
而今复兴重建之后的大熊町为何仍然人迹罕至？

本期节目我们专访了福岛核事故亲历者大熊町役场•企画调整课科长 幾橋功