Evacuees from Futaba-machi, #Fukushima Still Living in Abandoned High School Building After Two and a Half Years

As Japan celebrates "recovery" (at least in the stock market), 2020 Tokyo Olympic, maglev bullet train that will run under Japan Alps, there are still 100 people from Futaba-machi, Fukushima still living in the abandoned high school building in Saitama Prefecture, more than two and a half years after the earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear accident struck Tohoku and Kanto.

Time has frozen for them, too.

In my August 16, 2012 post, I wrote there were more than 200 Futaba-machi residents living in shelter in the Kisai High School building in Kazo City in Saitama Prefecture, in partitioned classrooms and gyms, getting boxed meals.

Since September 1, 2012, the residents who live in the high school building have had to pay for the boxed meals, 30,000 to 40,000 yen (US$300 to 400) per month, out of their own pockets.

According to a volunteer group who's been providing the residents, mostly elderly, with hot meals every one to two months since September 2012,

それから約1年、徐々に避難所生活の方々は減って来ていますが、現在もまだ約100名の方がこちらの避難所で３食お弁当の生活を続けられております。

One year since [we started serving hot meals], the number of people living in the shelter have been gradually decreasing. However, there are still about 100 people living here [at the high school], eating three boxed (bento) meals every day.

そして避難所は急ピッチで閉鎖の方向に向けての動きがあるようですが、現在残っていられる約100名の方々の行く先、賠償問題など、残された課題はまだまだたくさんあります。

The plan to close this shelter is rapidly gaining momentum, but there are still many issues to be resolved. Where will the current 100 residents at the shelter go? What about compensations?

避難所自体がいつまでも存属していると言うことは、決してよいことではありません。ただ、納得のゆくかたちで閉鎖に結びつくわけでないのでは、決して良いわけでもないと思います。

It is not a good thing that a shelter continues to exist. But we don't think it is a good thing if this shelter is closed without consensus from the residents.

避難所の方達は、生活環境はよくないものの同じ町の知り合いやお友達と、寄り添い合って共に生活しているという、人と人とのつながりだけが心の支えである、ともおっしゃっています。避難所から出ることになると、みなさんがバラバラになってしまいます。ただでさえ多くの物を理不尽に失って辛い生活を強いられている中、そのような状況はお年寄りの孤独感を倍増させ、日々の楽しみもなくなると思います。

The residents at the shelter also tell us that despite bad living conditions they find emotional support through human relationship - that they live together with their friends and acquaintances from the same town [Futaba-machi]. If the shelter is closed, they will have to live apart. They have already lost so much and are forced to live in a harsh condition. It would increase the sense of loneliness in the elderly residents and deprive them of their daily joy and happiness.

Katsutaka Idogawa is no longer the mayor of Futaba-machi; he decided not to fight the recall motion by the town assembly. He was a candidate of the Green Party for the Upper Election in July this year, but his campaign didn't get any attention and he lost.

There is no incentive for politicians to do anything about the evacuees in an abandoned high school building in Saitama. The evacuees don't complain, and no one complains for them.

They are going to squander a ton of money (maybe literally) on maglev trains and 2020 Olympic, but they can't even convert this high school building into a more comfortable, habitable living space.

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