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HEXaMedia via Vimeo
Japan
These shots reveal just how desolate Fukushima is now
The entire area around the nuclear disaster site remains empty.
JAPANESE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY company HEXaMedia flew a drone equipped with cameras through Tomioka, Japan – the largely abandoned town that played host to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
The result is a 7-minute video that reveals just what the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site is like now, having remained untouched for more than three years.
After being devastated by the 2011 tsunami, which killed almost 16,000, the area was declared a no-go area due to the high levels of radioactivity.
Just one man still lives there – a fifth-generation rice farm who VICE have dubbed “the most stubborn man in the world”.
Check out the most stunning shots from HEXaMedia’s video below, or watch it in full by clicking here.
Tomioka, Japan is an especially quiet town after the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
A solar-powered device measures ambient radiation still left over from the event.
By and large, people are nowhere to be found.
This used to be an operational train station that’s become overgrown and unusable.
Even from a drone’s high vantage point, there’s little evidence of people outside of their abandoned homes and shops.
The most obvious thing one can see is evidence of the tsunami’s destruction.
The tsunami was powerful enough to pick up a boat and set it down next to this road.
Pulling away from the boat by drone, we can see just how far inland the tsunami swept the boat.
Plant life bounced back relatively quickly.
People who survived saw their homes destroyed.
Looking at things up close, we see lots of garbage left behind.
Looking at things from farther away, it’s overwhelmingly desolate.
Tomioka’s future is a bit uncertain.
Now watch it in full below:
HEXaMedia / Vimeo
- Dylan Love / Nicky Ryan
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