Kieru Fukei Ashita He No Negai (Soredemo "Furusato")

[Machine Translation] The road where the white car is parked is rippled, the asphalt is peeling, and there are large bumps. Apart from one person wearing a "protective suit," there were no people, animals, or cars to be seen. This was the scene I saw in Okuma Town, where the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is located, one month after the accident. Six months after the accident, at an ostrich farm in the town, ostriches, which had been left behind but had survived, approached people for food when they saw them. In Okuma and Futaba towns, where all the people evacuated, the landscapes and buildings from the nuclear disaster remained. However, ten years after the accident, buildings that had been there before the accident were demolished one after another, and the landscape of the towns changed drastically. The large amount of waste from the decontamination and demolition of buildings was taken to an "intermediate storage facility" for disposal. However, the "interim storage facility" was built on the land where people used to live with their families and cultivate their fields in the rich nature of the area. The people who were born and raised there donated their land to the storage facility, saying to themselves that it was for the "reconstruction of Fukushima" and promising to give it back to them in 30 years' time. They donated the land to the "interim storage facility" with the hope that "someday, I would like to cultivate the fields again.

白い車が止まっている道路は波打ち、アスファルトがはがれ大きな段差もあります。「防護服」を着た一人のほかには、人も動物も車も見当たりません。福島第一原発の爆発事故から1か月後、原発がある大熊町で目にした風景です。事故から半年後、町にあったダチョウ園では、取り残されながらも生きのびたダチョウが、人を見ると、エサを求めて近寄ってきました。すべての人が避難した大熊町や双葉町には、原発災害の風景や建物が残されていました。しかし事故から10年が過ぎたころから、事故前からある建物がつぎつぎと解体され、町の風景が大きく変わっていきました。除染や建物解体にともなう大量の廃棄物は、「中間貯蔵施設」に運ばれて処理されています。でも、「中間貯蔵施設」がつくられたところは、人びとが豊かな自然のなかで田畑を耕し、家族と暮らしていたふるさとの土地なのです。その土地で生まれ育った人たちは、「福島の『復興』のため」と自分に言い聞かせ、30年後には返してもらうという約束をして、土地を「中間貯蔵施設」に提供しました。「いつか、もう一度、田畑を耕したい」という願いをこめて。