60 minutes rewind
the magnitude 9 earthquake that struck japan on march 11 2011 not only shook the ground
it took the japanese people's faith in their government and the nuclear power industry as we
first reported in april you can see the impact of the disaster in the towns right around the plant
only you can't get there the earthquake did some damage the tsunami did more but the reason many of
them are empty and off limits today is because of the nuclear accident at the fukushima power plant
next door the whole area is now a radioactive wasteland and the people who live there don't
know if they'll ever be able to go home many don't know if they'll want to three years later
the events of march 11th darkened their lives so deeply that many speak of it simply as 3 11.
the hell that broke loose on march 11 2011 was the strongest earthquake in japan's history
when the shaking stopped the tsunami race toward shore
with as much fury as nature can muster
almost all of the more than 18 000 people who died that day
on japan's northeast coast died in the flood
the quake didn't do much damage to the fukushima daiichi nuclear power station but the tsunami shut
down the reactor's emergency cooling systems and they started to melt down hydrogen gases
inside the buildings then exploded spreading radiation into communities more than 25 miles away
today in the town of tomyoka the radiation levels
are considered safe enough to allow people in during the day
loudspeakers warn visitors that they must leave by 3 pm
we were alone on the day we were there the disaster seems to have stopped time the clock
shows 246 the moment the earthquake hit and the damage to shops and homes looks like it could
have happened yesterday the stack of newspapers we found were dated march 12 2011 the day after
the quaken tsunami you can see people had to leave in a hurry that was the morning
the government told people of this town and neighboring towns to get out quickly welcome
to okuma says the sign population today three years later zero more than 11 000 people left
town that day and never returned would you ever want to go back to okuma to live there again
yes i would like to before i die noria kimura lived with his wife and two daughters
next door to his parents the tsunami killed his father his wife and his youngest daughter
yuna a bright and cheerful seven-year-old this is what their homes looked like before march 11 2011.
this is what's left today foundations and scraps
of memories that he keeps in a small box by what was once the front door
this is a shoe she was wearing that day which was found in a heap of rubble six months after
the disaster because of radiation kimura can only visit his former home ten times a year
and stay only five hours in february his alata day came in the middle of a blizzard
on each visit kimura brings flowers to a small shrine he built to honor his family
they were among the 111 people who died in okima that day the remains of a hundred and ten have
been recovered the only one still missing is nadio kimura's daughter yuna ten times a year
he goes back home to search for her on saturday you were digging again in okuma
it was snowing it was freezing why you know to find yuna of course
and also if i stop searching or gathering her things i will lose the connection with her
to be honest the reason why i can live my life every day is because i have to find her
and her things volunteers now help kimura dig through the piles of debris left by the tsunami
everyone's dressed in protective clothing to limit their exposure to radiation the digging seems
futile but on this day him to unearth clothing he says belonged to his surviving daughter mayu
on march 11 the day of the tsunami kimura made a mistake for which he will never forgive himself
he was at work on a farm and he stayed there did you think then that there would be a tsunami
there was a radio at my work and my boss told me that the tsunami was going to be three meters tall
my house is five to six meters above sea level so i was convinced that our home would be fine
and didn't worry about it after that at all do you think there's anything you could have done to
save your family i should have gone home right away even now i say to myself what was i thinking
when radiation forced the evacuation of okuma the town leader told norio kimura to stop searching
for the missing and start caring for the living sahina's daughter moved here to the japanese alps
where the brisk air and the snow-capped mountains made radiation and tsunamis difficult to imagine
kimura has traded farming for a guest house he recently opened his daughter mayu talks about her
mother more than her missing sister and doesn't ask why her father continues searching for her
their new mountain home is 2 000 feet above the perils of the sea and 180 miles from the
fukushima plant ghost towns surround the plant now but three years later there are still more than 4
000 workers there all of them wearing layers of protection because of the exposure to radiation
the men in this building are only allowed to work two and a half hours a day
they're not producing any electricity they're just cleaning up were tepco workers adequately
trained to handle the emergency i don't think so within months of the accident yawichi
funabashi a former newspaper editor headed an investigation into what went wrong and why
it was the only investigation not sponsored by the government and its conclusions were brutal i was
very much concerned about the government not telling the truth to the public the revelations
in funabashi's report added to the public's anger and dismay he wrote that from the beginning
the government had conspired with the industry to convince people that nuclear power is safe so the
government effort at the time was to convince people that there was nothing to worry about
exactly nothing to worry about don't worry okay even don't prepare for that
the uh severe accident okay because that would cause that unnecessary unease and
unnecessary misunderstanding and there's no reason to prepare a reason to prepare
so this avoidance ultimately translated into unpreparedness the story will continue after this
mother nature threw a real curveball to the japanese with that huge tsunami
last year tepco hired american nuclear engineer lake barrett as an advisor
barrett directed the cleanup at the three-mile island nuclear plant after its accident in 1979.
it's estimated that the cleanup is going to take 30 to 40 years to layman that sounds very very
long to me that's not long at all that's what i would expect for that kind of thing it's a huge
challenge it's it's a big on-site mess that they have to clean up and it's going to take them
decades to do it it took us 10 years to do three mile island and three mile island accident was
much simpler than they have at fukushima are they where you thought they would be three years later
uh i'd hope they'd be further along uh it's been challenging uh technically it's been
challenging culturally and politically for them but they're making good progress now
sounds like you're being a little diplomatic well decision-making process in japan is is complicated
decision making in japan requires consensus and reaching consensus often takes a very long time
the most difficult job will be to dismantle the melted reactors but radiation is too high
for workers to get there for now tepco is inundated with groundwater that leaks into
the reactors and gets contaminated every day a hundred thousand gallons of radioactive water
has to be pumped out before it reaches the ocean tepco is filling storage tanks
almost as fast as it can build them and they're notorious for leaking
another enormous cleanup is happening outside the plant entire communities are being cleared
of contaminated materials that will have to be stored for generations this part of japan is
known for its agriculture but the only crop growing now is the multitude of black bags
holding the radioactive waste filling the empty spaces in towns like okamura
now some of the kids from okama live and go to school 70 miles away how many of you
would like to go back to okuma
everybody how many of you think you will go back to okuma
what's keeping you from going back to okuma now you can tell me
because there's a lot of radiation there's a lot of radioactive material there
these kids will be middle aged before the cleanup is finished their homes could have been rebuilt
quickly if it had just been an earthquake and a tsunami it's the man-made disaster which will take
decades to repair this is the class that gnoria kimura's daughter you now would have been in
if she were alive her friend korea remembers they ate lunch together where is she now
she's lonely being alone in the town of okuma all this time i think she must be lonely
about a third of the residents from okama decided to stick together and moved into what
the government called temporary housing temporary is lasting a long time the three generations of
kimuras that once lived together are now split apart norio and his daughter live in nagano five
hours away from his mother to maui she lives in the temporary housing alone in a cold and cramped
room furnished with photographs the kimuras like many japanese have a strong connection to their
dead and feel obliged to help them be at peace as long as the dead are in limbo so are the living
you've lost so much of your family why aren't you together with your son now
i'm with my husband's ashes now
once i find a proper place to put him i'd like to go to nagano
what do you think the right place will be
our family cemetery in okama is contaminated with radiation now i could come back two or
three times a year to burn incense for him but my grandchild would not be able to come
i don't want to keep him or his grandchild whom he used to adore so much can't even come to visit
ten times a year noriyo kimura visits his ancestors in the family cemetery a place
where he thought he would be laid to rest one day and where his children would come to visit him
but he won't find any peace he says until after he finds yoona
do you think there's any chance you'll ever find your daughter
i know that the chance is very slim
but no matter how slim the chances i still cannot stop
from the outside looking in i know that this is very unlikely
but i still can't stop even if i cannot ever find her