Disaster

Japan Revisits Nuclear Zone

Before mandatory evacuation takes effect.

Residents from the area around Japan's stricken nuclear plant returned home, briefly, to gather their belongings before the mandatory evacuation took effect at midnight. The Japanese government told people living within a 12-mile radius of the plant to leave when the nuclear crisis began, but until now the decision to leave was voluntary. Over 78,000 people lived in the zone before the earthquake, and an additional 62,400 people live 12 to 18 miles from the plant. The government arranged buses for people to return to their homes for two hours, though houses two miles from the plant were off limits. One woman, Michiko Koyama, wearing a mask, raincoat, gloves, and shopping bags on her feet, said, “It feels like my house is burning down, so I want to take as much as possible.”