Sunday, April 24, 2011

Movers turn away evacuees / People told to relocate get cold shoulder from moving firms (by Yomiuri Shimbun)

FUKUSHIMA--Many residents in Fukushima Prefecture who have been told to prepare for evacuation have been refused service by moving companies, it has been learned.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110424002266.htm

Canadian filming quake-hit Kesennuma (by Yomiuri Shimbun)

KESENNUMA, Miyagi--A Canadian researcher has focused her camera on Kesennuma in a project that may last a decade to show how the devastated city and residents are recovering from last month's massive earthquake and tsunami.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110424001230.htm

Atmospheric radiation leak underestimated (by Yomiuri Shimbun)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20110424dy04.htm

Fukushima crisis initially categorized as 'incident,' not accident (by Asashi Shimbun)

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104230229.html

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Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, left, raises the severity of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident to level 7 on the INES scale on April 12. (Yuta Takahashi)

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there! Mickey Mouse brings smiles to evacuees (by Asahi Shimbun)

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104230231.html



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Earthquake and tsunami survivors greet Mickey Mouse at an evacuation center in Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture. (Kenta Sujino)

Our newly built house washed away, only 33-year mortgage remains

(by Ms. Mika Tanaka (32), Yuriage, Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, at an evacuation shelter, Natori City Culture Center, Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture)

The house we rebuilt only a year and a half ago was washed away by the tsunami.

We chose the white wall and floor after thinking it over and over for our new house. We still have 33 years mortgage loan to pay. Insurance paid for the damage, but it did not cover even the half of the remainder that we owe. We’d like to move out from the shelter, but we cannot afford to rent a house big enough for a family of seven and make payment for the loan; moving out from the shelter means resumption of the loan payment. My friends at the shelter have similar problem.


Asahi Shimbun, April 23, 2011
Translated by Makiko Tajima Asano