WUNRN
JAPAN - CONTINUED
DISPLACEMENT FROM EARTHQUAKE & NUCLEAR CRISIS - WOMEN OF ALL AGES -
CHILDREN
Google - Online Social Media - OSM
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Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre - IDMC
JAPAN - TENS OF
THOUSANDS REMAIN DISPLACED
5 MONTHS AFTER EARTHQUAKE &
NUCLEAR DISASTER
A visit by
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted
the situation of people in north-eastern prefectures affected by the 11 March
earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster.
Nearly five months on, tens of thousands of homeless survivors are still living
in evacuation centres in schools and other public buildings, or in hotels,
while they wait
for suitable accommodation. As of mid-July, around 91,500 people were still
displaced, according to the government. The lack of suitable land in hilly
coastal areas is a major challenge to the construction of new homes. Other
evacuated people have been unable to return to their homes around the nuclear
plant.
The Fukushima prefectural government has stated that all 557 shelters in the
prefecture will shut
at the end of October, as alternative accommodation for some 15,000 evacuees is
close to being secured. However, people do not want to move
into transitional housing away from schools and other amenities, or to lose
their entitlement to assistance. Others want to remain with the people and
communities they know.
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JAPAN
- UN SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS DISPLACED
FROM
NUCLEAR DISASTER & EARTHQUAKE
2011-08-08
- Fukushima
- UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday pledged the world body's solidarity with Japan
after its quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and encouraged radiation evacuees
to "hang in there"......
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Japan - Shelter
& Displacement Life Takes Mental Toll on Evacuees
(AP) June 7, 2011 - KORIYAMA, Japan (AP) — Life in
evacuation shelters is taking a severe psychological toll on those left
homeless by Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, a situation likely to
worsen as tens of thousands face the prospect of staying at least the rest of
the year in temporary housing.
Though the suffering is spread out along Japan's ravaged northeast coast, the
problem is particularly severe for Japan's "nuclear refugees," who
were forced to flee from homes near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and
have been told to expect to remain in limbo for the next nine months, at least.
"I have pretty much given up," said 63-year-old Eiichi Kogusuri, who
lives in one of the country's biggest shelters, a sports arena housing nearly
1,000 refugees in the city of Koriyama, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) away
from the nuclear plant.
"All I do every day is eat, sleep and watch TV," he said. "Every
day seems so long. I'm in my 60s, I have no work. I have nothing to hold on to
and I'm too old to start over."
Hiromichi Watanabe, a health official for Tomioka, a town of about 16,000 near
the nuclear plant, said the condition of the evacuees from his town is
deteriorating. Tomioka's residents have scattered all over the country, but
many remain in shelters in
Nearly three months after the disaster, evacuation shelters in and around
"They can't think ahead to the future, and this is very hard
psychologically," Watanabe said. "They don't know when they can go
home. Families have been broken up. We need a solution."
According to government tallies, 98,500 people remain homeless and live in
about 2,000 shelters around the country. That number pulls together both those
who lost their homes in the March 11 quake and tsunami, and those who were
forced to leave the 20-kilometer (12-mile) no-go zone set up around the
Some evacuees have found lodging with family or friends, while some others have
been fortunate enough to move into government-supplied shelters, including
prefabricated homes or hotels and
Watanabe said psychologists have been called in to check on evacuees and are
now making regular rounds at most major shelters. Medical doctors are also
treating evacuees who show symptoms of depression.
"There is no doubt that we are seeing people dealing with a greater amount
of stress," said Akinobu Hata, the director of the Fukushima Mental Health
and
In the first two months after the disaster, nearly 3,000 evacuees in the
disaster zone were hospitalized for symptoms related to stress, fatigue or poor
sanitation and hygiene, according to a Kyodo News survey of hospitals. That
does not include people who required treatment but not hospitalization, or who
have been hospitalized since early May.
Hata said
Recovery is under way along the northeastern coast, as towns clean themselves
out from under the rubble of the destruction and begin to rebuild. But at
"It's really hard," said Kogusuri, a single truck driver from Tomioka
who lost both his home and his job. "It's like everything is just stuck
where it is and you can't move forward."
Kogusuri said life in the shelter is regimented: communal and often crowded
bathing areas, strictly defined meal times, lights out at 10 p.m. He has his
own partitioned space, which is just barely big enough to lie down in but
provides a modicum of privacy.
The floors in the gymnasium are hard, and only curtains separate the occupants.
Out of courtesy to others, there is little talking, no music and no laughter.
Kogusuri's shelter is among the best in the disaster zone, relatively new,
spacious and spotless. In other areas, evacuees still huddle on school or
community center floors, with little or no air conditioning or heat, and far
more restricted access to food, toilets and baths.
Even at the arena in
More importantly, the fatigue of shelter life is wearing evacuees down mentally
— especially the elderly, who make up a disproportionate number of the
evacuees.
Health officials say the unfamiliar surroundings have exacerbated symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease among some older evacuees, while others who had been able
to get around by themselves have become bedridden.
Watanabe, the Tomioka health official, said it is particularly difficult for
evacuees to see the rest of the country move on, since they themselves cannot.
"We don't want to be forgotten," he said. "We want to go
home."