3. Decided to evacuate due to mistrust of not telling the truth about the nuclear power plant accident
In the early morning of March 12th, the day after the earthquake, I went to help
restore the damage to my company's customer factory in town "Okuma-machi" of district "Futaba-gun". There is a nuclear power plant.
But the national road was flooded in several places due to the tsunami and I had difficulty driving a car.
Due to the execution of a police inspection at the entrance of the city of Futaba-
machi, we were not allowed to access the cities of Hutaba-machi and Okuma-machi
where the nuclear power plant is located, therefore we could not go to the factory.
At the checkpoint, we were told, "The nuclear power plant is being inspected, so we can't enter the area," and "If something happens, there's no way we can help you," that's what we were told.
As I reluctantly went home, I learned over the radio that the nuclear power plant was already in a dangerous situation and that an explosion had occurred in the reactor building at 3:36 p.m.
When I returned home, my daughter was very scared with the words: "A nuclear power plant has exploded, are we all right?"
However, in a news coverage it was explained: "There was no explosion, but the internal pressure increased explosively due to ventilation work." Someone said, "The air is released." But I thought: "The outer wall should not have been blown away because of the ventilation work", I actually shouted because of my discomfort.
Since then, it has been repeatedly reported that "Sheltering indoors is enough for us and there will be no serious accidents that will require evacuation outside."
However, because I learned about radiation damage in my work, I definitely believed, "The surest way to prevent radiation exposure was to avoid exposure."
Therefore, I found it unnatural that a report said: "There is no need to evacuate, even though there was an abnormal situation such as an explosion of a nuclear reactor building."
Something terrible is happening at the nuclear power plant right now. And there is a strong possibility that accurate information has not been released. I decided to evacuate even my daughter alone, so I consulted my father and decided to evacuate her to the city of Ritto-shi ("Rittou-shi") in Shiga-ken prefecture "Shiga-ken" where my younger brother lives.
On the morning of March 13, I loaded my daughter into my wife's light/small car
(660 cc) and left my home in Souma-shi town for Rittou-shi town in prefecture Shiga-ken.
On the way, I asked about the road situation at Soma-shi ("Souma-shi") police station, but I couldn't get any useful information. And there was a big landslide on the road, which forced me to divert, and the traffic jam continued. Because of this, our arrival at station Tokyo-eki ("Toukjou-eki") was around 3:00 on the 14th late night.
Bullet train Tokaido-Shinkansen (" Toukaidou-Shinkansen") will run from the first train on the 14th, so we waited for the first train to leave. When my daughter got on the train and sat down, she started crying right before the train started running, it made me and my wife's hearts hurt.
On the way back from station Tokyo-eki, we knew from the news that there is a
high possibility that the nuclear power plant has melted down, and there is a possibility that an explosion bigger than the first explosion will happen. Evacuate to a safe place to avoid exposure to radiation, and wait until the accident subsides and safety is confirmed. That is the best and right behavior, so the news said.
Then, when the second explosion happened, I was relieved from the bottom of my heart because I made my daughter evacuate early, so I decided to evacuate the whole family.
My wife was reluctant at first, but when I explained to her that there was a high
risk of further outbreaks and that there was no treatment or way to recover, she
finally agreed with me.
I wanted to evacuate my father in hospital, so I wanted to get a doctor's permission for that I contacted him, and ran my car to my house in city Soma-machi.
I arrived at my house around 5:00 pm on the 14th. By my wife's saying that she could not get her mother's medicine because it did not arrive at the hospital. Therefore from now on it was her own responsibility. That's all what she heard.
My father's discharge from hospital was not allowed. The hospital told me: "If something were to happen, the Self-Defense Forces ("Jiei-tai") would arrange to transport the patients by helicopter, so it's all right."
So, I gave up trying to evacuate my father and left my house in Soma-shi for
Shiga-ken, again late at night on the 14th, with my wife and mother by car.
When we entered the city of Fukushima-shi, the lights were on at the city hall, So I stopped the car to use the toilet for my mother. There were many lunches on the table, so I asked: "Could you give us the lunch?"
But they said: "These are lunches for evacuees, so we can't give them to you."
After that, I used the highway "Toumei-Kousoku", got some fuel and food, and arrived at my young brother's house in Rittou-shi.