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Japanese man heads back home to 'ghost town' outside nuclear plant

From Paula Hancocks, CNN
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Japan's evacuation zone deserted
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Kazuhiro Shirato went to his hometown of Tomioka, Japan, which has been evacuated
  • The town is about 8 kilometers from the nuclear plant that's been in crisis since March 11
  • He says he found the town was totally abandoned, except for dogs and some cows
  • Angry at the plant's owner, Shirato says, "I doubt I will ever be able to go back"

Tokyo (CNN) -- The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the skies clear and blue in this seaside town.

Yet apart from the occasional bark of a dog or the moo of a meandering cow, the most glaring aspect about life in Tomioka is the lack of it.

Japan's government five weeks ago mandated that everyone must leave the town, amid concerns about dangerously high levels of radiation emanating from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant about eight kilometers (five miles) away.

But Kazuhiro Shirato felt he had to go home.

So, with a Japanese journalist and cameraman alongside, he got in a car and headed toward Tomioka, where he and many others hadn't been since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck on March 11.

They drove with ease past signs that read "Forbidden Entry" stationed 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the power plant, meaning they'd entered the so-called "evacuation zone." Going farther, their main barriers were not police but occasional roads that had been cracked and heaved by the epic tremor.

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Cruising down Tomioka's tree-lined streets, Shirato saw many stores, residences and other buildings that, while damaged, were largely intact. But the eerie silence reminded him how it had transformed into a ghost town, save for a few animals left to fend for themselves.

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"There was nobody there, so I finally understood everyone had really left," he said. "I could see dogs and cows belonging to my neighbor. I was surprised cows could get so skinny after just one month."

Shirato's first stop was his mother's house, closing windows and blinds that had been left wide open. Then, he moved on to the family business -- a funeral parlor -- where flowers for services that never took place littered the floor.

His last stop was his own home, carefully stepping past his belongings, which had been flung everywhere by the earthquake. In between picking up his DVD collection and unplugging the electricity, Shirato searched for bank records and identification cards.

As he returned to Tokyo, where he's been in government housing, Shirato couldn't help but feel that part of him -- his sense of security growing up in the shadows of the Fukushima Daiichi plant -- had been lost due to the nonstop nuclear crisis.

Enduring psychological and emotional stress

He said he's angry with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant and has led the often problematic recovery operation, for convincing him at a young age that the nuclear facility was completely safe.

Beyond that, Shirato said he is losing hope that he'll ever return home for good. He is one of more than 78,000 people who lived within a 20-kilometer radius of Fukushima Daiichi who were ordered to flee, on top of another 60,000-plus in the next 10 kilometers who were told to shelter indoors. And Japan's government recently told residents of several towns outside that zone that they would soon have to evacuate, due to possible long-term health risks from radioactive particles.

"Two weeks ago, I thought I would be back home within six months," Shirato said Saturday. "But the situation (at the nuclear plant) got worse and worse.

"Now I doubt I will ever be able to go back."