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Fukushima hopes torch relay will highlight recovery
Updated On: 24 March, 2021 08:30 AM IST | Fukushima (Japan) | AFP
The pandemic might have overshadowed a Games once billed as the "Recovery Olympics" after the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe, but Fukushima torchbearers say the relay can show their home in a new light
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When the Tokyo Olympics torch relay kicks off in Fukushima on March 25, runners are hoping it will show the world the area is no "nuclear wasteland", a decade after the 2011 disaster. Pic/AFP
When the Tokyo Olympics torch relay kicks off in Fukushima on Thursday, runners are hoping it will show the world the area is no "nuclear wasteland", a decade after the 2011 disaster. The pandemic might have overshadowed a Games once billed as the "Recovery Olympics" after the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe, but Fukushima torchbearers say the relay can show their home in a new light. "From afar, Fukushima might look like a place where time has stood still," Hanae Nojiri, a reporter with a local TV station who will take part in the relay, told AFP. "But when people see the spectators lining the roads and the passion of the runners, I think they`ll update their image of the place."
The virus-delayed torch relay begins about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that went into meltdown when the massive quake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011. Around 18,500 people were left dead or missing, most of them victims of the devastating tsunami. Tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes, with radiation making some areas uninhabitable for years. The area`s recovery is not complete even now, but residents are ready to show the world how much progress has been made. The torch relay will start at the J-Village football training facility, which was once the front-line command centre for the clean-up operation at the nuclear plant. Now it has been restored to its original purpose, with pristine green pitches welcoming the footballers who train there. "I think it`s very meaningful that the relay will start from Fukushima 10 years after the disaster," said Nojiri.
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