Hideo Sato, 47, and his family escaped to this snowy city 200 kilometers from the radiation emitting Fuksuhima power plant that was struck by the earthquake-driven tsunami on March 11.
"We were forced to move from our house in Okuma-machi barely eight kilometers from the damaged nuclear plant. We wanted to protect our children from radiation, but now we are at the mercy of the government," he said.
Nine months after the disaster, Sato, a former employee at a car sales company, lives on a US$1,500 monthly unemployment dole. His wife is occupied with looking after their three children and cannot take up a job.
Sato's plight is shared by tens of thousands of people from the tsunami-battered coastline of northeastern Tohoku, that was home to factories producing automobile components and semiconductors for export. The World Bank estimated the economic cost of Tohoku to be $235 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in history. (Asia Times)
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