Here’s a series of never-before-seen photos of the Fukushima exclusion zone. As local dare devil Keow Wee Loong also known as @kiwikeow entered the red zone, he could feel a burning sensation in his eyes and a thick chemical smell in the air. Before he went there the authorities told him that he needed a special permit to visit the town and it take 3 – 4 weeks to get the approval done by the local council. Without any hesitation he went in the town with native Koji Hori and his colleague Sherena Ng whom did all her research, providing him with navigation of the route and map to the town, allowing them to sneak through the forest to avoid cops on the road. With only a GPS and Google maps aiding him as he made his way through the woods at 2am to get into the town of Okuma, Futaba and Namie.
Have you ever wondered what is it like in Fukushima’s exclusion zone now, to be walking in the town where you literally have 100% full access to every shop and landmark? Everything is exactly where it was after the earthquake struck this town. The residents started to evacuate the town when the tsunami warning came in hours after the Fukushima Daichi power plant exploded, leading to harmful radiation leaks on 11 March 2011.
The radiation level is still very high in the red zone. Not many people have seen this town for the last 5 years. It’s a bonafide ghost town, filled only with abandoned gold, furniture and broken Playstation 2s as remnants of a better time.
“I’m amaze that nobody looted this town clean; unlike Chernobyl where the entire town has been looted clean. This is the difference between the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima disaster,” said Kiwi Keow.
This is a devastating reminder that we should say no to nuclear energy; it’s a far too dangerous resource to utilise. How many red zones need to exist before we realise this?
Lets spread the awareness of the danger in using nuclear energy, not just Japan but the whole world.
