by Funahashi Atsushi
What must it be like for the people of Fukushima, to witness your homeland destroyed in the blink of an eye? Can they return? Do they want to? On March 11, 2011, a tsunami flattens the small town of Futaba. The following day, the nuclear power station three kilometres away becomes the scene of a nuclear catastrophe. The 1400 residents of Futaba are taken to emergency sheltering in Tokyo. Among them is the mayor, who desperately tries to spread optimism. Once an ardent supporter of atomic energy, he now witnesses his furious community being brushed off by the government’s insubstantial apologies. Atsushi Funahashi’s NUCEAR NATION is an assembling of his encounters with the surprisingly broad-minded people of Futaba, who he accompanied for several months.