I was fast asleep when someone banged on the door. It was about 10:00 p.m. and I had been asleep for a couple hours when I heard a man’s voice shouting something. I thought it was a volunteer firefighter who came to warn us or check on us, but it was my ex husband.
He was worried about us because we couldn’t communicate with our phones. He drove for an hour from Koriyama, Fukushima to check on us.
When I opened the door, he asked “Are you guys okay?”
I answered in a sleepy voice, “Yeah, we were just sleeping. “
He said, “Oh, sorry to interrupt your sleep. I’ll go then. Bye.” and he was going to leave.
“Wait!” I stopped him, not knowing what to say.
“Are kids all right?” he asked.
“Yes, they are okay, just scared though.” I answered.
“Does your vehicle have gasoline?” he asked.
And I said, “Actually, no. I was going to fill up today but the gas stand in the town was closed and I couldn’t fill the gas.”
He said, “I saw a few gas stands open on the way from Koriyama, one on Route 4 and one in Iino Town. Do you know where they are?”
“Uh, well…” I mumbled.
“Do you want me to drive there and fill up the gas for you?” he offered me.
“Thanks!” I said, I was relieved.
He said, “Gasoline is the first thing that becomes a shortage in this kind of situation. Okay, I”ll go now. How much gas is left?”
I answered, “The empty lamp is on already.”
He said “Really? Hmm, I’m not sure, but anyway I”ll try.”
“Thank you.” I answered
Then hearing our voice, my younger son woke up. “Oh dad? Why are you here?”
“I couldn’t call your mom, so I came to check on you guys to see if everyone’s okay.” he replied.
My younger son said, “We are all okay, just some stuff dropped off from top of the cupboard. Dad, are you gonna stay overnight?”
“No, I’m going to fill your mom’s vehicle with gas now, then I’ll go back home. Go to bed, son.” he said.
“Okay. You will come tomorrow, right?” my son asked. The next day was originally his visiting kids day once a month.
“Of course. Good night then.” he said and then left.
No less than 15 minutes, he came back.
I was surprised at the short time it took him to return. He told me that he turned around half way to the gas stand because he was worried the gas in the car was not enough to make it there. It was the right choice as he saw all the gas stands were closed on the way home that night.
I went to bed again, but big aftershocks woke me up many times in the middle of the night. Every time an aftershock occurred, I looked around, held my breath, wondering if I should wake up my kids and take them outside.
While I spent a sleepless night, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, nuclear reactors’ fuels had started to melt down. No TV, no internet, no phone, so there was no way I could know of the imminent disaster that was about to happen. Even more, I was ignorant. I had never worried about the Fukushima power plant before 3.11. Of course, I didn’t like the idea of nuclear power and radiation, but I had never given a deep thought on Fukushima Daiichi before. I drove and passed by the plant twice before, but it was about a 1.5 hour drive, so I didn’t think it was close to our house. I regret my ignorance now. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was 42 km away from my house as the crow flies, and it was very close.
Fukushima nuclear power plant has 6 reactors and on March 11, 2011, Reactors 4, 5, and 6 were shut down in preparation for re-fueling. However, their spent fuel pools still required cooling.
When the 9.0 Magnitude earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, Reactor 1, 2, and 3 automatically shut down. As the reactors were not able to generate power to cool the nuclear fuels, emergency diesel generators had taken place to to power the coolant system.
But after the earthquake, some facilities had already become damaged, a 13 to 14 meter (43-46 feet) high tsunami hit the buildings 50 minutes after the initial earthquake, and it flooded the plant’s turbine building and destroyed the emergency diesel generators for Reactor 1 to 4.
Since no coolant system was working, the water level to cool the nuclear fuel decreased more than 10 meters, causing the core temperature to soar from 300 to 2800 degrees celsius in Reactor 1.
The plant operator, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), reported later in December, 2011 that a meltdown started at about 7:50 p.m. on March 11. That was just when my children and I had fallen asleep! TEPCO also reported that all the fuel melted down and went through the concrete reactor container (“Melt Through”) at about 6:50 a.m. on March 12. How horrible!
The Government ordered residents within a 3 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi plant to be evacuated at 9:32 p.m. on March 11, and expanded the order to a 10 km radius at 5:44 a.m. But the Government spokesman Edano repeatedly said, “This is a “just in case” order. There is no radiation leakage.”
I am so angry at the fact that they didn’t tell the truth and the evacuation order didn’t include us. I witnessed the Government tell us so many lies about the Fukushima nuclear accident after 3.11. Looking back, if I knew the truth, I would have evacuated immediately. I couldn’t help but experiencing regret and resentment.
