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First, though to Japan--
where two years ago almost to the day the Tsunami struck.
But it was the nuclear disaster that followed which has left the most lasting legacy.
So what has happened to the people of Fukushima since then?
Adrian Brown traveled to the town of Odaka, deep inside the eradiated zone, to find out.
The desolate and bloated--this is Fukushima's Exclusion Zone:
a radioactive wasteland, the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.
Driving through Fukushima is a surreal and unsettling experience.
A geiger counter are only means of monitoring the danger that's all around.
We're now less than 20 kilometers from ground zero.
You can't see radiation. You can't taste it. You can't feel it .
But we know this is one of the most contaminated places on earth.
The experts say, making a brief visit here is not dangerous, but prolonged exposure is.
It's not a place you wanna spend too much time in.
This is the moment the quake struck.
These barriers mark the start of the "No Go Zone" around the crippled Dai-ichi nuclear reactor.
["It just have started beeping."]
3.34?
["Yes, which is very high."]
Despite the high radiation levels some people have refused to leave.
We're on our way to meet one of them.
Farmer MasamiYohizawa once provided beef for some of Tokyo's finest restaurants.
"What about your own health?"
"Have you been feeling sick?"
The 58-year-old farmer is refusing to slaughter his animals.
His herd has become a living symbol of protest against TEPCO, the plant's operator,
and the resumption of nuclear power in Japan.
As we leave we come across visitors taking pictures of Mr. Yoshizawa's eradiated cows.
They say they come as a show of support, but are seemingly oblivious to the risks.
The geiger counter is showing one of the highest readings of our entire trip.
"Do you believe the government when it says that the radiation levels are low?"
"You don't believe the government."
It's a felling of betrayal shared by many we meet.
Miyako Yoshida, among them.
"This is really weird.
Apart from our car I've seen no other people."
"No people."
"And so silent."
"Silent."
"It's very strange."
Miyako was forced to evacuate her home in Odaka, 15 km from the nuclear plant.
But she returns there regularly to leave food for abandoned pets.
The traffic lights are still working, but just about nothing else is.
Miyako's only protection is a face towel.
"How many cats will come here?"
"Ah, so they are eating it."
Many animals have already perished.
But today, for Miyako, there's a reassuring surprise.
Who are they?
In the window of an abandoned shop, she spots her friend's cat.
Excitedly, she calls her with the news, "It's alive!"
The discovery happens just meters from Miyako's home.
"So this is your house?"
"40 years you lived here?"
Before the disaster Miyako had big plans to rebuild. But it's unlikely she'll ever live here again.
So now here home is a ram-shackled shelter for the area's stray cats.
Close by are garbage bags filled with contaminated debris.
Piles like these litter the Exclusion Zone.
The government is still struggling to safely dispose off this radioactive material.
It's little wonder that Miyako has lost faith in nuclear energy.
"Do you think Japans should keep nuclear power?"
["No! Japanese government policy is... very strange."]
["And we, people, have been deceived by the government and the--
electricity company."]
This was the scene inside the Unit 1 reactor building after it was rocked by explosions.
As the cooling system failed and the plant went into meltdown--
a band of 50 workers stayed on, risking their lives to bring the crisis under control
["I was here."] "That's you?"
["Yeah, it's me."]
["... I look very tired."]
"Yeah, you look very thin."
["At that time there were still not enough food and water."]
Quietly spoken and unassuming, Atsufumi Yoshizawa is one of the heroes of Fukushima's dark days.
For the first two weeks, he and his fellow workers
survived on little more than adrenaline, biscuits, and water.
"You've been quoted as saying that you felt like a 'kamikaze' pilot."
"Did it feel like a 'suicide mission' though?"
Despite the workers' bravery, many Japanese still blame them--
for causing the accident and bumbling their response.
"It's two years since the disaster."
"Have the radiation levels started to drop? I mean--
Is it as bad now as it was then, or less bad, or worse?"
["Actually we're really surprised that the levels have come down much quicker than we expected."]
It's 'refreshing' to hear some positive news from Fukushima.
Joe Moross and Azby Brown, work for Safecast--
a U.S.-based organization which has helped to build a real-time map of radiation levels--
using mobile monitoring technology.
["Each unit has a GPS and a geiger counter inside,
so it measures the location, the time, and the radiation levels--
and then writes that on the memory cards so that we can read it out later and put it on the map."]
While they found that radiation is dropping, they concede that science is divided--
on the consequences for health from the levels that remain.
"Does that mean it's safe for people to return to their homes?"
["Well 'safety' is a relative term, and it depends on each person."]
["You know, the same thing that an elderly person might find 'tolerable' as far as health risk,
would not be tolerable for a young mother with children,
because at a low level if it's likely to generate a cancer in 20 years in your life,
well, a 70-year-old person probably doesn't have to worry about that.
But somebody who's only 10-years-old, they've got that time several times over--
for something that come up in their life later on because of that exposure."]
In Fukushima City, I meet Miyako Iname.
50 km from the crippled nuclear plant and well 'outside' the Exclusion Zone,
life is still far from 'normal'.
Every day she sends her daughter to a school faraway in the mountains.
A three-hour round-trip by bus.
7-year-old Chi is too young to fully understand what happened here 2 years ago.
All she knows is that she can't play outside her home anymore.
"If you're so worried about the radiation levels, why do you stay in Fukushima?"
For many of those who've turned their backs on Fukushima, life isn't much easier.
6 days after the explosion, Kiyoko Takada and her family abandoned their home--
23 km from the Dai-Ichi plant.
Now, mom, dad, and 4 children share 2 rooms of a rented ground-floor flat on the outskirts of Tokyo.
"Is the truth that really nobody knows--
when or if it will ever be safe to return to your home?"
While the authorities work out how to deal with this nuclear nightmare, the clean up goes on and on.
I found this 'Dad's Army' group of volunteers just outside Fukushima City.
It's slow, methodical work, as they rake and prod the land the Tsunai consumed.
They've been doing this six days a week since last May.
Strawberries and rice once grew in this soil.
The hope is that one day they will again.
"Japan is one of the richest countries in the world."
"Did you imagine you'd still be living in temporary housing 2 years after the Tsunami?"
Two years on, it's still hard for survivors to absorb the scale of this disaster.
For the people of Fukushima the suffering goes on.
"What do you think when you see this scene before you?"
"Do you think they can rebuild this place?"
Adrian Brown now. Extraordinary images.
And you do have to admire the woman who's brave in radioactive poisoning--
to feed those stray pets left in the Exclusion Zone.
There's a blog from Adrian on our Website describing how he felt visiting the disaster zone.
Plus, take a look at our interactive guide to radiation and its potential effects on health.
That's sbs.com.au/datelline
Subtitles by the Amara.org community