This is part three of our three part series on the second year
of the 3-11 disaster. In part three we look at the humanitarian
issues, the environmental damage and how people are adapting
since the disaster. 300,000 remain displaced from their homes.
Some from the tsunami damage, others from the nuclear disaster.
The original estimate for the nuclear related evacuation was
160,000. Some are in apartments, others in tiny temporary
housing units. An unused school in Saitama is still home to a
group of senior citizens with nowhere else to go. Those who have
taken up residence in the school will never be able to return
home. All come from Futaba, very near the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear plant. Futaba may not be habitable again for a
generation at best. (1)(2)(3) The second year brought the
realization to many that they may never be going home. The
government began discussing the need for a buffer zone around
the plant. Decades of dangerous decontamination work remains
ahead and work at the plant could release addi