http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-11/japan-to-mark-tsunami-anniversary/4564284
Japan is preparing to mark two years since the devastating earthquake and tsunami which slammed into the country’s north-east coast, killing nearly 19,000 people.
The magnitude-nine earthquake sent waves up to 40 metres high crashing into Japan’s Tohoku coast, destroying or damaging 1 million homes.
The resulting tsunami left nearly 19,000 dead and nearly 3,000 unaccounted for, and helped to trigger the worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
It has been estimated it will take at least 40 years to decommission the plant, with the compensation bill at least $33 billion.
I have a reunion with survivors every year and one of my friends says she could never marry because people said she would only produce children who were deformed and disfigured.
Two years on, Japan has been shaken by more than 10,000 aftershocks.
Over 150,000 Japanese are still living in temporary housing, some forced to deal with discrimination because they are perceived to have been exposed to radiation.
A government minister was even forced to resign after joking to reporters after a visit to the plant that he was radioactive and would give them radiation.
As one of just a couple of dozen survivors of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, Tetsuo Imamichi knows the sting of such prejudice.
Like most, the 77-year-old retired taxi driver has never spoken about his terrible experiences, but that changed after Fukushima.
It has been 68 years since an American B-29 bomber flew over the then nine-year-old Imamichi’s city, but he remembers that morning like it was yesterday.
“I was taking care of my two little brothers at home, making their breakfast and washing up,” he told the ABC.
“Suddenly there was a blue and white flash and a huge boom. The windows shattered and all the furniture went flying.
“One of my brothers was blown out into the garden.
“I found the other one in a closet.”
Arriving home, the boys’ mother gathered up the family and put them on a train to her home town of Nagasaki.
When the bomb nicknamed “Fat Man” levelled Nagasaki, Tetsuo Imamichi was just 3.5 kilometres from the blast.
“As we approached Nagasaki the train stopped. They’d just dropped the bomb,” Mr Imamichi said.
“We saw people on fire and people dying.
“Then my five-year-old brother got sick so we took him to the hospital.
“As the doctor was seeing him, my brother took a deep breath and he died without saying a word.”
Mr Imamichi says he feels for the people of Fukushima.
“There are bad rumours about Fukushima and they won’t go away,” he said.
“I worry the people of Fukushima will be discriminated against, just like we were.
“I have a reunion with survivors every year and one of my friends says she could never marry because people said she would only produce children who were deformed and disfigured.”
