Name: Masako WATANABE

Age: 58

(Age 45 in March 2011)

Birthplace: Namie Town

Home address: Okuma Town

Occupation: Support and Research Center for Fukushima Future, Nagasaki University

‘Gratitude’

① The area of Namie Town called Tsushima was mostly farmland. During the off-season for farming, there wouldn’t be any work, so the main breadwinners of the farming families would go off to work elsewhere. But with the establishment of the nuclear power station, it became possible to stay in Tsushima all year long. When the reactor had just been built I had heard stories of accidents, but afterwards I was told that nuclear reactors are safe, so I felt no sense of danger towards it whatsoever.

② Past 9 pm on the evening of March 11th, it was decided that all residents of intensive-care elderly people’s homes in a 3km radius from the power plant would be evacuated to the Health Center. Despite it being pitch-dark due to the power outage, more than 100 people evacuated in the middle of the night, past midnight.
The top-priority was to make sure the residents would have a place to lie down, so the workers of the facilities got together as many futons as they could carry, so the residents could spend the night.

③ My son was very worried about my safety. At first, I got a message saying “Are you OK with the earthquake?” which turned into “Are you OK?!”, and to “Are you alive??”

④ Blue poly tarp was spread out on the concrete, which was very cold. We received emergency supplies including two blankets per person, which we used to beat the cold. We still got many aftershocks, and every time the alarms on our phones went off, it brought a strong feeling of anxiety along with it. We faced the fear of the cold, the sound, and of the shaking at the same time.

⑤ After some time, the Self Defense Forces came with supplies of rice, meaning we got to enjoy three warm meals per day. I really felt what a huge sense of relief comes from being able to eat warm meals.

⑥ On April 4th, a day before leaving Denso, someone said to me: “Thank you for always replacing the towels.” That really made me tear up. I felt that ‘someone had paid attention to me, and seen what I did.’

⑦ After I moved to Aizu, I noticed a change in my feelings towards my old hometown. At first I thought, “Tomorrow when I gets light out, I’ll go and check up on my house.” When I got to Tamura, I guess I thought: “In about two weeks I’ll be able to go home.” By April, when the restricted area had been decided, I started to realize: “I won’t be able to go home anytime soon.”

⑧ When I moved into my apartment, I received things like electrical appliances from the Japanese Red Cross. Of course, I was very grateful for them, but all the supplies came with Red Cross stickers on them, which gave me an odd feeling. It felt like being constantly confronted with the reality of being an evacuee.

⑨ Even though I didn’t have any connection with the place, I moved to the city of Noda in Chiba Prefecture. There was a sense of relief in living somewhere I didn’t know anyone. It was a sense of relief; like escaping reality. But one thought never quite went away: “How long can I stay here?”

⑩ The feeling of being an evacuee didn’t go away until my old house got dismantled. The fact that I lost my house didn’t mean I was suddenly homeless, but it did feel that way. Nowadays, I just simply live in Okuma. I don’t particularly feel like a returnee.

⑪ I want people to decide beforehand within their own families where they would evacuate to and where to get information from in the event of a disaster. How to prepare for a disaster, and where to evacuate to if you get split up during a disaster, is very similar for many types of disaster.

CAPTION

Permission documents issued for temporary entry. In order to enter one’s home in the evacuation zone, a permit was required every time, as well as a verification of the reason for entry, and a list with several points of caution. After the visit, a notification of the radiation dose was given.

This television and the rice cooker were provided as part of the emergency supplies from the Japanese Red Cross. Even after rented housing was arranged, for about four months until appliances arrived, Watanabe was indebted to secondary shelters because she could not cook rice and get information. All appliances have a sticker of the Japanese Red Cross on them. Watanabe says that every time she saw the stickers, they reminded her of the fact that she was an evacuee. Initially, a sticker was placed on the front side of the TV, but as she did not want to be confronted with it all the time, she placed it on the back side. Eventually the sticker came off, however she could not bear to throw it away.

Blankets were given out to the evacuees at Denso East Japan on March 14. Two blankets were distributed to each person. One was meant to be spread out on the floor, the other to put over oneself. The bag containing the blankets was also used to put under the blankets to keep out the cold.

The Okuma Town Health Center where Watanabe resided between the 11^th and 12^th of March 2011.

A photo of being demolished of her house in Okuma Town.

A photo taken inside the Denso facility an evacuation center. Blue poly tarp can be seen spread out over the concrete floor.

A photo of the Self Defense Forces distributing rice at Denso. The distribution of warm meals provided a sense of relief.

A portable toilet set up outside at Denso. The evacuees all used it together.