World News

The Ghost Towns Behind The Gates

A view over a gate blocking off the old downtown of Okuma, in Fukushima Prefecture. Fukushima was forever changed by one of the world's biggest nuclear disasters nearly a decade ago.
A view over a gate blocking off the old downtown of Okuma, in Fukushima Prefecture. Fukushima was forever changed by one of the world's biggest nuclear disasters nearly a decade ago. Claire Harbage / NPR

Fukushima was forever changed by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011. Japan has poured billions of dollars into recovery efforts — clearing away radioactive waste, rebuilding roads and reopening towns. But what does recovery really mean? It's an answer filled with resilience, reinvention and regret.

An NPR team spent February and March reporting in Japan, before the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe. "The Ghost Towns Behind The Gates" is a visual interactive part of an NPR series sponsored by the John Alexander Project. To view the story, go to apps.npr.org/fukushima/

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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