There are few events in world history that make us ask ourselves: Where was I when that happened?

I still remember when the news broke about a plane crashing into the World Trade Centre in 2001 and the visuals of the giant waves hitting Indonesia and Thailand’s coast in 2004. Another shocking tragedy that affected so many of us was the tsunami hitting the nuclear power station on Fukushima’s coast. The images from these events are forever seared into memory. 

It’s been a decade since the disaster took place. However, the trauma is still fresh, especially for the survivors who physically experienced the catastrophe. We had seen Chornobyl exactly 25 years before this, and with Fukushima, we once again all witnessed the horror of another ​nuclear ​accident​. ​Like Chornobyl, hundreds and thousands of families had to be evacuated overnight as their homes were no longer safe. Nuclear radiation was spreading every minute, contaminating everything on its way.

Ten years is a long journey. Looking at the Greenpeace archives, beginning with the first team documentation from 2011 up until 2019, it reminds us that while a decade may seem like a long time, it is not enough to wash away the pains caused by the accident. 

Here we present the visual documentations Greenpeace has done in Japan over the years, as we try to show the extent of radiation in various prefectures.  This is Greenpeace bearing witness, so we may never forget Fukushima’s horrors and for us to continue campaigning for a truly nuclear-free world.

A satellite image shows damage at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant In Fukushima Prefecture. The damage was caused by the offshore earthquake that occurred on 11 March 2011.
A Greenpeace team member monitors the level of radioactivity at Kawamata City, 60 km from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A group of Greenpeace radiation experts is monitoring locations around the evacuation area that surrounds the crisis-stricken nuclear plant, in order to assess the true extent of radiation risks to the local population.
Greenpeace radiation expert Jacob Namminga of the Netherlands checks his colleague's boots for traces of radioactivity during decontamination procedures at Kawamata City, 60 km from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A group of Greenpeace radiation experts is monitoring locations around the evacuation area that surrounds the crisis-stricken nuclear plant, in order to assess the true extent of radiation risks to the local population.
Two women sit around a heater at Yonezawa gymnasium which is now providing a shelter for 504 people who either lost their homes by the Tsunami or live near Fukushima Nuclear Power Station. For those who lost their homes, or have been evacuated due to radiation fears, the future is uncertain.

Radiation levels found by the Greenpeace monitoring team are far above internationally recommended limits. People living here would receive the yearly maximum dose of radioactivity within a few days.

Greenpeace activists join tens of thousands of people marching on the Japanese parliament in remembrance of the 2011 triple disaster in Fukushima, and to demand the Japanese government to abandon its dangerous nuclear programme. Greenpeace is calling on the Japanese authorities and governments globally to fix faulty laws governing the nuclear industry and force all nuclear companies to be fully accountable for nuclear disasters.

As autumn approaches, leaves turn gold in a forest near Tsushima Village, in the district of Namie. Nestled in between mountains in a beautiful green valley, Tsushima lies close to the 20 km exclusion zone surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Despite being outside the zone it is heavily contaminated, as winds blew radioactive fallout from the triple meltdown in its direction for three days. Citizens were exposed to high levels of radiation. Although the authorities had information showing this would happen, no one was warned. Thousands of the village’s inhabitants have now been evacuated and are living in temporary homes in Nihonmatsu. Whether they will be able to return to their villages remains an open question.

A radiation measurement tool used by a Greenpeace team member to check contamination levels in a park near Watari, a suburb of Fukushima City. Greenpeace has been conducting radiation monitoring around the Fukushima area for the past year, and has found serious risks to public health, inadequate decontamination activities, and a complete failure by the authorities to protect the Japanese population.

 Using long exposure photography and a custom made, Geiger counter-enabled LED light painting tool, this project makes the invisible visible, measuring and displaying radiation levels in real-time, in the environments it exists. Inspired by the Immaterial wifi light painting project, we have sought to make environmental contamination clear and understandable using a white/orange/red lighting scale. White represents levels under 0.23uSv per hour (1mSv per year) – the Japanese government’s guideline for decontamination after Fukushima. Orange shows contamination levels elevated above this, up to 1.0uSv per hour (roughly 5mSv per year) – a range where protective measures to minimize radiation exposure (such as resettlement, decontamination, special health services, food controls, etc) should be considered. Red shows radioactivity is greater than 1.0uSv per year (upwards of 5mSv per year) – a level where protective measures to minimize radiation exposure are necessary.

Bags with nuclear waste in Obori, Namie-town inside the highly contaminated exclusion zone in Namie, Fukushima prefecture. The area has produced high quality pottery or “Obori Somayaki” since feudal times (over 300 years) and is recognized officially in Japan as a centre of traditional craft producing Japanese treasure. In the United States it is popularly known as producing "Idea Cup" or "Double Cup." Obori was evacuated in March 2011 due to the radioactive fallout from the triple reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This area remains closed for people to return to, and the traditional sources of clay and ceramic glaze, that made Obori pottery famous, is no longer available. The Japanese government plans to open a small area of Obori as early as 2023, however the levels of radiation measured by Greenpeace in this highly contaminated area mean that it will be many decades and beyond the end of the century before radiation levels will even approach government targets.
A Greenpeace sign indicates a radioactive hot spot in a storm water drain between houses in Watari, approximately 60km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Greenpeace is checking radiation levels around Fukushima City nine months after the triple nuclear meltdown to document the health risks local communities are facing.