http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/world/asia/forced-to-flee-radiation-fearful-japanese-villagers-are-reluctant-to-return.html?_r=0&referrer=


Forced to Flee Radiation, Fearful Japanese Villagers Are Reluctant to Return

"The government and the media say the radiation has been cleaned up, but
it's all lies," said Miyakoji villager Kim Eunja, with her husband, Satoshi
Mizuochi.
KO SASAKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By MARTIN FACKLER
April 27, 2014
MIYAKOJI, Japan -- Ever since they were forced to evacuate during the
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant three years ago, Kim Eunja
and her husband have refused to return to their hilltop home amid the
majestic mountains of this rural village for fear of radiation.

But now they say they may have no choice. After a nearly $250 million
radiation cleanup here, the central government this month declared Miyakoji
the first community within a 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant to be
reopened to residents. The decision will bring an end to the monthly
stipends from the plant's operator that have allowed Ms. Kim to relocate to
an apartment in a city an hour away.

"The government and the media say the radiation has been cleaned up, but
it's all lies," said Ms. Kim, 55, who is from South Korea, and who with her
Japanese husband runs a small Korean restaurant outside Miyakoji. "I want
to run away, but I cannot. We have no more money."

She is not the only one. While the central government and national news
media have trumpeted the reopening of Miyakoji as a happy milestone in
Japan's recovery from the devastating March 2011 accident, many residents
tell a darker story. They insist their homes remain too dangerous or too
damaged to inhabit and that they have not received enough financial
compensation to allow them to start anew somewhere else.



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