Features

Trying hard to see that his family is happy

Parents disagree about when to return home

by Takamasa Kyoren, Staff Writer

Two years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant. More than 300 people moved from Fukushima Prefecture to Hiroshima Prefecture to avoid radioactive contamination. The Chugoku Shimbun took a look at children in two families living in the city of Hiroshima to find out how the children have felt over the past two years and how they are faring at present.

Tomoya Niizuma, 11, has grown 10 cm in the last two years. He joined the track club at his elementary school in Hiroshima and can run faster than before. Tomoya lives with his mother, elder sister and younger brother. “I have to be strong for my family,” he said. He said he rarely cries these days, but when he recalls the night it was decided they would move to Hiroshima he gets a little weepy.

The family was living in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, about 50 km from the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant. In January of last year, there was a heated discussion between Tomoya’s father, Yoshikatsu, 39, and his mother, Yukimi, 37, Yukimi told her husband that out of concern for their children’s health the family could not continue to live in Iwaki. She said they should move to Hiroshima so that they would not have to worry about radiation. The family had previously temporarily relocated to Hiroshima for winter vacation.

Yoshikatsu, who runs an appliance store, angrily objected to the plan, however. He felt he could not abandon his customers and believed there was no need to relocate because the government had declared that Iwaki was safe.

Tomoya’s parents still acted like sweethearts, often holding hands when they went shopping, so the friction between them that evening was upsetting for Tomoya, who crawled under the kotatsu foot warmer. He urged his parents not to fight and tearfully told them that he wanted to go to Hiroshima. He said he did so because he had a vague fear of radiation.

Tomoya’s comment may have led to his father’s change of heart, but in any case two weeks later Tomoya, his mother, sister Yui, 17, and brother Ryo, 7, moved to Asa Minami Ward in Hiroshima. The agreement was that they would stay for two years. Tomoya recalls how before they left his father told him to look out for his mother.

Tomoya enrolled at Tomo Elementary School, where he is now a fifth-grader. Because his mother works and his sister is busy with club activities, after school Tomoya goes to the child center to pick up his little brother. Once they get home, instead of going to a friend’s house to play, Tomoya helps his brother with his homework. “I’m the big brother, and I’m the one who said I wanted to go to Hiroshima, so I have to work hard,” Tomoya said.

Yukimi is well aware of Tomoya’s feelings. “He’s really attached to his dad, but he keeps his feelings of loneliness inside,” she said. “Subconsciously, he seems to feel he needs to try to keep us happy.”

In phone conversations, Yoshikatsu sometimes tells Yukimi of his concerns. He complains that he doesn’t feel motivated to work and that it is difficult to keep up with the housework. He is lonely.

Yukimi also struggles with loneliness while taking care of their three children, but she is insistent that they cannot return to Iwaki. Living apart seems to have made it more difficult for the couple to be considerate of each other’s feelings, although they don’t want their children to hear them arguing.

When he hears his mother speaking sharply to his father on the phone, “I get upset, and I don’t want to talk about anything,” Tomoya said. “That’s why I want us to get along when we’re all together.”

Once or twice a month Yoshikatsu makes the trip to Hiroshima to see his family. It takes more than six hours each way. On the 3rd of this month an ekiden relay race for elementary school students was held at an athletic field in Asa Minami Ward. Yoshikatsu came to Hiroshima to cheer on Tomoya, who was competing in the event.

Tomoya ran all out on his 1-kilometer leg and passed several other runners. After the race, Yoshikatsu said to him, “You looked good out there.” Tomoya acknowledged his father’s praise with an offhanded “thanks,” though he was clearly overjoyed to have his parents there to cheer him on.

That night the family went out to eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant for the first time in quite a while. Ryo sat on his father’s lap the entire time, wishing that that happy time together could go on. There was all sorts of sushi, including tuna and salmon, but for some reason Tomoya was too filled with emotion to eat much. His father would return to Iwaki the next day.

(Originally published on March 11, 2013)