Last Sunday, on March 11, I visited Hirono Town in Fukushima with my son and younger daughter.
The TV program “Sunday Morning”, which was aired in the evacuation zone, brought me there.

I was so shocked to see Hiroshi Sekiguchi and the other newscasters and reporters in protective gears.
After a while, I was urged to see how Fukushima was hugely hit by the massive earthquake and the nuke plant’s explosion.

“Today is a mourning day for Japanese.  I will go to see the edge of the evacuation zone.  I recommend that you come with me, instead of playing video games or watching animes,” I said to my children.
They agreed with me and we left home for Fukushima.

We went up Joban Highway to Hirono, the current terminal spot.
Right after passing Iwaki Junction, towns beneath the highway became deadly quiet.
It was never be called a peaceful silence!!
There were no passengers, no farmers working, no vehicles passing by.
Needless to say, no shops were open and all houses there seemed locked, residents’ cars were in their garages.
I thought that all the people in the town may have evacuated to some other places.

It was not only the town that was deadly quiet in Fukushima.
The weeds!!

They were dried out terribly, not like the way we used farm chemicals to dry them.
There were no buds or shoots at all.
I thought the soil there was poisoned.

Junior high students in Ibaraki had learned about Rachel Carson, who was a female scientist and the author of the bestseller “Silent Spring”, in their 9th graders’ English textbook.
Upon seeing the weeds in Hirono Town, I said to myself, “Silent spring has come!”
Spring with no buds, no shoots, no flowers, no animals, and no people walking in town.   As quiet as if all creatures had stopped breathing.

I realized radiation was harmful enough to abandon several towns.
I can’t write anymore, imaging the feelings of refugees, of those who used to live in this evacuation zone.s.