Kimin: Japan's Forgotten People

This is the dark, depressing story of Japan's 300,000 tsunami refugees. On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake struck Japan. Soon after, a huge tsunami inundated a 400 kilometer stretch of Main Island’s northeast coast. Nearly 500,000 people fled from the onrushing torrent. More than 20,000 were died. Over 300,000 residents lost everything – their homes and all belongings – swept away by the raging torrent. Within a week, news concerning the tsunami refuges had vanished from the popular Press, supplanted by the evolving nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi. While the Press regularly reminds the world of the plight of Fukushima’s evacuees, virtually nothing is reported concerning the dire situation with the tsunami refugees. This story follows the chain of events in Tokyo and at Fukushima Daiichi that deflected international attention away from the aftermath of Japan's worst natural disaster. It also reports the situation along the Tohoku coast two years following the disaster, which has been largely ignored by the Press inside and outside Japan. This book explains why and how the tsunami refugees have become Kimin: Japan’s Forgotten People…a moral disaster which demands to be told.