誰かが言わなきゃならない

1. Why evacuation in Koriyama?

Mayor of Tomioka-cho stuck to Koriyama when locating our evacuation camp. His primary interest was to stay close to our hometown. Our next town Okuma-cho went farther to Aizu Wakamatsu City to the north. Futaba-cho went down even farther Saitama Prefecture in the south.
Koriyama-city is the busiest city in Fukushima Prefecture, with the population of more than 300,000. Has a Tohoku Shin-kan-sen station, and an Express Highway Interchange. It takes only one and a half hours to get to Tokyo by Shin-kan-sen. Its service was restored on April 12. Frequent highway coaches are in service to Tokyo, Sendai and other cities.
People in the Big Palette enjoy the advantages of urban city infrastructures more than the mayor anticipated: abundant supplies, a big DIY center in five minute walk, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. Services in gas stations and supermarkets were paralyzed just a while after our arrival upon evacuation. But they came back to normal soon. We can buy everything we need in daily life except food supplies.
The Big Palette stands aside National Highway 4, along which stand all kinds of restaurants, sushi-go-round restaurants, too. Even a department store stands near the JR station. Volunteer workforces are also big in this 300,000 inhabited
city. Other people in Aizu-Wakamatsu City or other rural areas may live quiet lives, but may suffer from insufficient supplies.

2. Washing machines delivered two weeks behind

At long last today on April 16, ten washing machines and five dryer machines were installed, already one month from evacuation. The new washing space is where pet cages were placed, about 25 square meter room, maybe a former stock room. Pet cages were moved to three outdoor tents.
The delivery of washing machines was scheduled for April 2 by the emergency
headquarters. Two weeks behind, a typical example of inefficient administration of headquarters. Nevertheless, the machines are very helpful to those who washed by hands and dried the washings in the sun or who need to use nearby coin laundries. In prolonged evacuation life, there is no other way to meet the needs one by one.

3. Goods to develop for evacuation life (1): mats

A couple of items came to my mind what commodities need to be developed or prepared for an evacuation life. Japan is traditionally, as we were so in wartime, poor at commissariat or rear-echelon support. Spirits tend to be relied upon for compensating material shortage.Adequate equipment and its continuous make-up support are essential for a survival life.
Good suggestions were obtained at a nearby outdoor equipment shop. The first is a mat. A gymnasium is often used as an evacuation camp: school gymnasiums,
municipal gymnasiums, etc. Large-size exhibition halls like the Big Palette or Tokyo Budokan are also used. Different from small-size school classrooms, such large-size facilities often have an issue of ensuring privacies, warm keeping, etc.
The space for the refugees is the same for nights and days. Therefore, the space must be adequate for the night, for sleeping. The floors of a gymnasium are usually hard, or covered by thin sheets for protection. An extra blanket, if available, can be placed, but still too hard for sleeping. Cardboards can work as a cushion.
Cardboards are fairly easily obtainable, but not perfect for the people used to beds or mattresses. Why can’t mats be stored at or near the potential
evacuation camp facilities? Limited number of mattresses was stocked in the Big Palette. They were given to weak people first: people under nursing care, sick people, aged people, etc., not for everybody.
Light-weight and compact-size air cushions are already in the market and used widely as camping equipment. Sleeping bags will be perfect if prepared, although a bit expensive. They keep us warm, too. I will get my own and keep it in my car for my next evacuation.

4. Evacuation termination wanted

This is the biggest interest of all evacuees. But nothing is foreseen. The mayor of our town watches every day the radiation monitoring reports. He wonders if the monitoring spots could be increased, too. The radiation levels in our home town Tomioka-cho are reported to be lower than those in some northwestern areas like I-idate-mura Village.
The news of contaminated vegetable shipment control being terminated, or the news of intake control of tap water being terminated, gives us a hope that the access control of us to the town may be terminated sooner or later. Our wish is: no more radiation release to outside from the NPP; and west winds continue. Everybody of us wants to ask the experts whether the situation would improve and Tomioka-cho goes back to habitable if the conditions continue to improve
as it is now.