Thread by @nytimes

We returned to Fukushima, Japan, 10 years after it was struck by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that set off a triple meltdown at a nuclear power plant. The disaster killed more than 19,000 people.

This is what we saw. nyti.ms/3bARt2A

Even a decade after the natural disasters in Fukushima triggered a nuclear meltdown, the Japanese government has not fully reopened villages and towns within the 12-mile evacuation zone. Many former residents have no plans to return.

See the photos: nyti.ms/3te7dyB

Some people are coming back to Fukushima, though. To them, returning home — or restarting their businesses — is worth the residual radiation risk.

The places they are rebuilding feel familiar, yet eerie and hostile at the same time. nyti.ms/3te7dyB

For miles around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there are physical reminders of the catastrophe that forced so many to leave.

In the town of Namie, bags of radioactive waste have piled up. nyti.ms/3te7dyB

On the day of the disaster, 12-year-old Rina Tsugawa and her classmates cried under their desks as the earthquake struck.

Rina is now 22 and graduating from nursing school. She plans to return to Fukushima to care for the aging residents who raised her. nyti.ms/38w7Lrx

Rina’s help is needed. In Fukushima, the ongoing nuclear cleanup and recovery efforts have played out against the backdrop of another struggle: Japan’s rapidly aging and declining population.

https://twitter.com/motokorich/status/1369458441236799489

Deep anxiety remains in Japan over nuclear power. Of the country’s more than 50 nuclear reactors, all of which were shut down after the Fukushima disaster, only nine have restarted. The issue continues to be politically fraught. nyti.ms/3t9W01T

Kesen, an ancient Japanese village, was wiped out when the earthquake and tsunami struck in 2011. The photographer Hiroko Maisuke has visited twice a year since to document a small group of survivors on a mission to rebuild. They know it may never succeed. nyti.ms/3eGgoE3