Google Japan has announced that it is now possible for Google Maps users to access street view images of Namie, a coastal town in Fukushima that was severely affected by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami before being completely evacuated when the nearby Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant went critical.
Namie
Internet, Japan- (Fukushima • ghost town • Google Maps • Namie • sad • Street View • town)
It wasn’t just the earthquake or tsunami of March 11, 2011 that shattered the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, it was the subsequent radiation. Slowly creeping across the once fertile land, it ripped families from their homes and banished them to evacuation centers elsewhere. Today, nearly two years after the worse nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the entire 86 square miles of Namie have been declared uninhabitable due to high levels of radioactive cesium. Even if families wanted to return, they can’t.
Amid this tragic loss, Google Street View is giving the people of Namie a chance to visit the town they were forced to flee.
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Philip Kendall
Writer / Translator Hailing from Liverpool in the UK, Philip Kendall made Japan his second home in the summer of 2006 after dolefully abandoning his childhood dream of becoming a ghost buster.
Steven Simonitch
Writer/Translator Though a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Steven currently resides in Nagano, Japan, where he is known by the old lady at the supermarket as “the white guy who always buys 2 packs of natto.
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Kay
Writer / Translator Kay is a native Japanese who has lived in Honolulu, Hawaii and Los Angeles, California. She currently resides in Tokyo and enjoys writing about a wide range of topics, including all things cute and glamorous.
Michelle Lynn Dinh
Writer / Translator Originally from California, Michelle is currently working as an assistant English teacher on the tiny island of Chiburi in Shimane prefecture.
Jessica Ocheltree
Writer / Translator Jessica Ocheltree is a freelance writer and editor living in the exciting, interesting and sometimes perplexing city of Tokyo.
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