Tokyo being billed as ‘Recovery Olympics’ -- but not for all

torch relay for Tokyo Olympics will kick off in Fukushima, rrn prefecture devastated almost nine years ago by an earthquake, tsunami and subsequent meltdown of three nuclear reactors.

y’ll also play Olympic baseball and softball next year in one part of Fukushima, allowing Tokyo organizers and Japanese government to label se games “Recovery Olympics.” symbolism recalls 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which showcased Japan’s reemergence just 19 years after World War II.

But tens of thousands still haven’t recovered in Fukushima, displaced by nuclear riation and unable to return to deserted places like Futaba.

Time stopped in town of 7,100 when disaster stuck on March 11, 2011.

Laundry still hangs from second floor of one house. Vermin gnaw away at once intimate family s, exposed through shattered windows and mangled doors. desolation is deepened by Japanese tidiness with shoes waiting in doorways for absent owners.

“This recovery Olympics is in name only,” Toshihide Yoshida told Associated Press. He was forced to abandon Futaba and ended up living near Tokyo. “ amount of money spent on Olympics should have been used for real reconstruction.”

Japan is spending about $25 billion to organize Olympics. Most is public money, though exactly what are Olympic expenses -- and what are t -- is always disputed.

government has spent 34.6 trillion yen ($318 billion) for reconstruction projects for disaster-hit rrn prefectures, and Fukushima plant decommissioning is expected to cost 8 trillion yen ($73 billion).

Olympic torch relay will start in March in J-Vill, a soccer stium used as an emergency response hub for Fukushima plant workers. relay goes to 11 towns hit by disaster, but bypasses Futaba, a part of Fukushima that Olympic visitors will never see.

“I would like Olympic torch to pass Futaba to show rest of world reality of our hometown,” Yoshida said. “Futaba is far from recovery.”

riation that spewed from plant at one point displaced more than 160,000 people. Futaba is only one of 12 riation-hit towns that remains a virtual -go zone. Only daytime visits are allowed for decontamination and reconstruction work, or for former residents to check ir abandoned homes.

town has been largely decontaminated and visitors can go almost anywhere without putting on hazmat suits, though y must carry personal dosimeters — measures riation absorbed by body — and surgical masks are recommended. main train station is set to reopen in March, but residents won’t be allowed to return until 2022.

A main-street shopping arce in Futaba is lined by collapsing store fronts and sits about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from nuclear plant, and 250 kilometers (150 miles) rth of Tokyo. One shop missing its front doors vertises Shiseido beauty products with price tags still hanging on merchandise. Gift packs litter ground.

Futaba Minami Elementary School has been untouched for almost nine years and feels like a mausoleum. one died in evacuation. But school bags, textbooks and tebooks sit as y were when nearly 200 children rushed out.

Kids were never allowed to return, and “Friday, March 11,” is still written on classroom blackboards along with due dates for next homework assignment.

On first floor of vacant townhall, a human-size “daruma” good-luck figure stands in dim evening light at a reception area. A piece of paper that fell on floor says doors must be closed to protect from riation.

It warns: “Please don’t go outside.”

words are underlined in red.

“Let us kw if you start feeling unwell,” Muneshige Osumi, a former town spokesman told visitors, apologizing for musty smell and presence of rats.

About 20,000 people in Japan’s rrn coastal prefectures died in magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami. Waves that reached 16 meters (50 feet) killed 21 people around Futaba, shredding a seaside pine forest popular for picnics and bracing swims.

A clock is frozen at 3:37 p.m. atop a white beach house that survived.

body perished from immediate impact of riation in Fukushima, but more than 40 elderly patients died after y were forced to travel long hours on buses to out-of-town evacuation centers. ir representatives filed criminal complaints and eventually sent former TEPCO -- Tokyo Electric Power Company -- executives to court. y were acquitted.

When Tokyo was awarded Olympics in 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured International Olympic Committee members that nuclear disaster was “under control.” However, critics say government’s approach to recovery has divided and silenced many people in disaster-hit zones.

Under a development plan, Futaba hopes to have 2,000 people -- including former residents and newcomers such as construction workers and researchers -- eventually living in a 550-hectare site.

Yoshida is unsure if he’ll return. But he wants to keep ties to Futaba, where his son inherited a filling station on main highway connecting rrn Japan to Tokyo.

Osumi, town spokesman, said many former residents have found new homes and jobs and majority say y won’t return. He has his own mixed feelings about going back to his mountainside home in Futaba. number of residents registered at town has decreased by more than 1,000 since accident, indicating y are unlikely to return.

“It was so s to see town destroyed and my hometown lost,” he said, holding back tears. He reflected on family life, autumn leaves, and comforting hot baths.

“My heart ached when I h to leave this town behind,” he ded.

Standing outside Futaba station, Mayor Shirou Izawa described plans to rebuild a new town. It will be friendly to elderly, and a place that might become a major hub for research in decommissioning and renewable energy. hope is that those who come to help in Fukushima’s reconstruction may stay and be part of a new Futaba.

“ word Fukushima has become globally kwn, but regrettably situation in Futaba or (neighboring) Okuma is hardly kwn,” Izawa said, ting Futaba’s recovery won’t be rey by Olympics.

“But we can still show that a town that was so bly hit has come this far,” he ded.

To showcase recovery, government officials say J-Vill -- where torch relays begins -- and Azuma baseball stium were decontaminated and cleaned. However, problems keeping popping up at J-Vill with riation “hot spots” being reported, raising questions about safety heing into Olympics.

rioactive waste from decontamination surrounding plant, and from across Fukushima, is kept in thousands of stor bags stacked up in temporary areas in Futaba and Okuma.

y are to be sorted -- some burned and compacted -- and buried at a medium-term stor facility for next 30 years. For w y fill vast fields that used to be rice pdies or vegetable farms. One large mound sits next to a graveyard, almost brushing stone monuments.

This year, 4 million tons of those industrial container bags were to be brought into Futaba, and ar million tons to Okuma, where part of Fukushima plant stands.

Yoshida says medium-term waste stor sites and uncertainty over wher y will stay in Futaba -- or be moved -- is discouraging residents and newcomers.

“Who wants to come to live in a place like that? Would senior officials in Kasumigaseki government hequarters go and live re?” he asked, referring to high-end area in Tokyo that houses many government ministries.

“I don’t think y would,” Yoshida ded. “But we have ancestral graves, and we love Futaba, and we don’t want Futaba to be lost. good old Futaba that we remember will be lost forever, but we’ll cope.”

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