Fukushima's children

Fukushima's children

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With an anxious expression on her face, a five-year-old girl in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture lies back to have her thyroid examined.

From going through medical checks like this, to having limits on the time they can spend outdoors, many children in the region continue to be affected by the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant three years ago.

. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Some of the smallest children in Koriyama, a short drive from the Fukushima plant, barely know what it's like to play outside. They can't.

City recommendations have kept them inside for much of the day as protection from radiation.

Though the strictest limits set after the nuclear disaster have now been eased, parental worries and ingrained habit mean that many still stay inside.

. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

With children in the region spending less time outdoors, an annual survey by the Fukushima Board of Education found that children in the prefecture weighed more than the national average in virtually every age group.

Toshiaki Yabe, an official with the Koriyama city government, says that children in the area have shown less physical strength and coordination.

"Compared to before the disaster, you can certainly see a fall in the results of physical strength and ability tests - things like grip strength, running and throwing balls," he said.

. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Following the 2011 accident, a 30-km radius around the Fukushima nuclear plant was declared a no-go zone, forcing some 160,000 people from homes where some had lived for generations.

Other areas, where the radiation was not so critically high, took steps such as replacing the earth in parks and school playgrounds, decontaminating public spaces like sidewalks, and limiting children’s outdoor play time.

Koriyama City recommended shortly after the disaster that children up to two years old not spend more than 15 minutes outside each day. Those aged 3 to 5 should limit their outdoor time to 30 minutes or less.

Though thyroid cancer in children was linked to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, the United Nations said last May that cancer rates were not expected to rise after Fukushima.

The limits were lifted last October, but many kindergartens and nursery schools continue to obey them even now in line with the wishes of worried parents.

. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Seven-year-old Masyoshi Kaneta lives in Koriyama. His family has experienced plenty of upheaval since the disaster, living in a shelter and spending time away from Masyoshi's father before returning to Fukushima.

The boy says that the disaster has helped shape his future ambitions.

"I want to be to a firefighter. I dreamed of it before the earthquake and tsunami disaster, but I think even more now that it’s really what I want to do. After going through the damage of the tsunami and earthquake, I want to save people.”

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Slideshow

Children greet their nursery school teacher before getting a school bus to the Emporium kindergarten in Koriyama.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Children greet their nursery school teacher before getting a school bus to the Emporium kindergarten in Koriyama.

A girl wears a mask as she sits in the bus to kindergarten.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

A girl wears a mask as she sits in the bus to kindergarten.

A man works at a playground in Koriyama next to a geiger counter measuring the local level of radiation.
. NIHONMATSU, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

A man works at a playground in Koriyama next to a geiger counter measuring the local level of radiation.

Children play in an indoor sand pit at the Emporium kindergarten. The youngsters have to change out of their outdoor clothes before they are allowed to use the sand pit.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Children play in an indoor sand pit at the Emporium kindergarten. The youngsters have to change out of their outdoor clothes before they are allowed to use the sand pit.

Japanese ornamental "hina" dolls, made by children, hang on a wall at the kindergarten.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Japanese ornamental "hina" dolls, made by children, hang on a wall at the kindergarten.

A boy plays with a paper plane in a corridor of the kindergarten.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

A boy plays with a paper plane in a corridor of the kindergarten.

Two-year-old Sakuya Zui plays at an indoor playground in Koriyama, built for children whose parents are worried about the effects of radiation if they play outside.
. NIHONMATSU, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Two-year-old Sakuya Zui plays at an indoor playground in Koriyama, built for children whose parents are worried about the effects of radiation if they play outside.

Two-year-old Nao Watanabe plays in a ball pit at the indoor playground.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Two-year-old Nao Watanabe plays in a ball pit at the indoor playground.

Sakuya Zui plays in an inflatable ring indoors.
. NIHONMATSU, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Sakuya Zui plays in an inflatable ring indoors.

Four-year-old Iori Hiyama rides a tricycle in an indoor playground.
. NIHONMATSU, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Four-year-old Iori Hiyama rides a tricycle in an indoor playground.

Children play dodge ball in a playroom at the Emporium kindergarten.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Children play dodge ball in a playroom at the Emporium kindergarten.

The youngsters are seen through a door as they play indoors.
. KORIYAMA, Japan. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

The youngsters are seen through a door as they play indoors.

"One mother told her child to: 'try to avoid touching the outside air.'"
Toru Hanai, Reuters Photographer

It will soon be the third anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

I myself live in Tokyo, more than a three-hour drive away. Right after the disaster, I too bought bottled water both to drink and to use around the house. Now, however, I drink from the tap without thinking about it.

As the anniversary of the nuclear accident approached, I found myself wondering what life has been like for the people of Fukushima, especially the children, whose lives are still directly affected by it.

So I visited Koriyama city in Fukushima prefecture, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Until last year, Koriyama recommended that children aged 0-2 should not spend more than 15 minutes a day outside and those aged 3-5 should not be outdoors for more than 30 minutes. Even now, some nurseries voluntarily continue to use these limits after the official recommendations were relaxed.

An indoor sand pit was built in 2012 for the children at the city’s Emporium kindergarten. To ease the fears of worried parents, children have to change their clothes after being outside in order to play in it.

I visited another indoor playground, PEP Kids Koriyama, during the working week in the daytime. It was overcrowded with pre-kindergarten children.

Some mothers told me that their children born after the nuclear crisis have almost never played outdoors. One mother told her child to: “try to avoid touching the outside air.”

A survey by Fukushima’s education board found that children in the prefecture weighed more than the national average in almost every age category. The cause seems to be a lack of exercise and outdoor activity.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in February 2013 that there is a higher possibility of some children in the region developing thyroid cancer as a result of radiation.

The United Nations said later last year that radiation from the Fukushima accident did not seem to have caused any immediate damage to people’s health, but this has not necessarily soothed anxious parents.

Fukushima Prefecture carries out thyroid examinations on residents over 20 years old every two years, but Namie Town (located some 8 kilometers from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant) also organises additional thyroid checks.

Hoping for a bit of certainty, I saw one 5-year-old girl file into a clinic at a temporary housing complex run by Namie town in Nihonmatsu to have her thyroid gland inspected. She was uneasy, and had her brother there to support her.

Mitsuhiro Hiraguri, director of the Emporium kindergarten told me: "one can see the drop in physical strength in these children and it’s apparent it’s due to their limited indoor activities. I see it clearly when I hold an athletic competition.”

The children’s problems were not only physical, but also mental.

Hiraguri said he saw: “fighting, scuffles and even some children who suddenly broke out with a nosebleed."

As I covered this story, I met Ayumi Kaneta, the 34-year-old mother of three boys, who spent one year living in a shelter after the nuclear disaster. Her husband remained in Fukushima for his work.

"I didn’t know what was going on,” she recalled. “I was just afraid of anything.”

Spending time in areas such as Kyoto and Niigata, she didn’t know what to do with her children. However, she returned to Fukushima, and it will soon be three years since the disaster.

“I try to keep from going out, and opening the window. I buy food from areas away from Fukushima on the net and that’s become the norm," she said with a downcast look.

"I cannot see the future. I try not to watch negative news, and try not to think about it."

"But I think about the good things, they also exist. Living for a year in a shelter and having children separated from their father made us stronger than before and strengthened our family’s bonds,” she told me.

“I had never thought of it that way before. But I’ve discovered that I love it here in Koriyama, Fukushima." she said and looked up.