Tag: crisis

Ohashi owns a successful baked goods company in Fukushima City. He has used grains from organic farmers in Fukushima Prefecture, but now he may have to look elsewhere. Even if the grains are uncontaminated, the stigma against Fukushima produce would likely hurt sales. Ohashi's health is frail but he has no intention to leave despite typical background radiation here of 1 microsievert/hour. He says the disaster has strengthened local pride, and people here are learning to living with radiation.

A pair of comedians bartend at the Showtime bar in Fukushima City. I sat down with my camera gear and they kept calling me Michael Moore (pronounced mo-ah).

Mrs. Sugiuchi watches one their greenhouses in Haramachi being tested for radiation.

8 millirems (8 microsieverts) per hour on the highway in Iitatemura.

.7 millirems (7 microsieverts) per hour on the highway in Iitatemura.

The edge of the evacuation zone in Iitatemura.

Sugiuchi was banned from selling his crops due to high contamination levels found near his farm in Haramchi. Now he's researching soil remediation.

4.1 millirems/hour (14,250 counts per minute or 41 microsieverts/hour) on a mountain road in Iitatemura. The town is mostly abandoned but on Sunday there were some people around. They apparently came back to check on their property.

Yumi and Masanori Yoshida plant rice in Hanawa.

Rocks outside this house in Hanawa measured 1,000 CPM. A baby lives here.

Yoshida (a common name here, no relation to the other Yoshidas) responds to radiation levels on his land.

Hiroaki Yoshida tests background radiation at a rice field in Shirakawa.

Young farmers in Sukagawa.

Yumi Yoshida records Junko's radiation measurements at the Yoshidas' rice field.

Junko and Ed in Tokyo before heading to Fukushima.

Hongo's parents and grandparents were the only ones who supported his antinuclear campaign.

Now Hongo only grows enough rice to feed himself. He won't feed potentially contaminated food to others.

Yuko Yoshida preps pizza dough.

Hiroaki Yoshida bakes pizza.

High background radiation at this rice field in Shirakawa, which has been approved for cultivation.

Yoshida offers a handful of mud from his rice field to test for contamination.

Cesium-137 attached itself to exposed horizontal wood, concrete, and stone, like this tree stump in Hanawa.

Rice seedlings await planting in the Yoshidas' field.

Guests from an outdoor magazine pick their own pizza toppings to bake in the Yoshidas' brick oven.

The edge of the 30km evacuation zone.

Junko and Hiroaki Yoshida at a section of harbor in Iwaki destroyed in the 3/11/11 earthquake.

Junko and Hiroaki Yoshida look on as his son Masanori plants rice.

Many of these scenic mountains are radioactive hotspots.

A family photo album in the ruins of Iwaki.

A house in Iwaki ravaged by the 3/11/11 earthquake.

Ed shoots the ruins of Iwaki.

This family runs an organic restaurant in the 200-year-old converted barn attached to their house.

Grandma Yoshida washes vegetables in an aqueduct as her grandson Masanori and his wife Yumi plant rice.

This cow evacuated from the contamination zone tested negative for contamination.

Radiation is most dangerous for young children, but when families learn the contamination levels at their homes they often feel helpless to do anything about it.