In photos: Abandoned Fukushima areas taken over by nature | Lifestyle.INQ

OCTOBER 27, 2022

It’s been seven years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and also seven years since Fukushima’s residents were forced to evacuate. Many of the disaster-stricken areas remain abandoned to this day, and in place of residents, visitors, and tourists, the once-bustling coastal area is now populated by grass and weeds.

Asahi Shimbun photographer Tetsuro Takehana, who had lived in Fukushima in his youth, returned to the prefecture to capture its current state. Strangely, despite the toxic effects of the nuclear disaster, areas of Fukushima are green and growing. In a short video documenting his trip, Takehana remarks, “It was as if time had stopped, and yet the grass and trees continue to grow.” In a few more years, there may not even be any trace of the devastation left. Goes to show just how much more powerful nature is than man.

See Takehana’s photos below.

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An abandoned toy
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
A calendar inside a classroom with the date still at March 11, the date of the Tohoku earthquake.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
With its missing planks, this bench is now barely recognizable.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
Grass, weeds, and other plants grow through cracks in the floor and walls, creeping into houses.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
An unused railway now overgrown with weeds.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
Weeds have grown over the cracks across a parking lot.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
Abandoned car in the middle of a sea of tall grass.
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A school’s sports ground now overrun by grass and weeds. The white football goal remains as the only sign that this was once a playing field.
nolisoli fixture news fukushima
An abandoned housing facility with vines growing all the way through the floors

Watch Takehana’s coverage below:

Photos courtesy of Asahi Shimbun.

 

Read more:

Rare images of untouched ghost town Fukushima makes us rethink having a nuclear power plant

A photographer took aerial photos of Manila and they’re utterly suffocating

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