Fukushima village on way to becoming ghost town

[AsahinaKimi]

Stony silence: Residents who were forced to evacuate from their homes in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, listen to Norio Tsuzumi, executive vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., speak about the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant April 30. KYODO PHOTO

"We've heard five, maybe 10 years, but some say that's far too optimistic," he said, crying. "Maybe I'll be able to come home to die."

IITATE, Fukushima Pref. — Sleepy, idyllic and dangerously irradiated, the village of Iitate is preparing to evacuate.

The junior high school is closed, its children bused every day to nearby towns. Tractors sit idle, and weeds poke through rice and cabbage in the fields. Half-empty shelves greet customers at the A-Coop supermarket.

By the end of the month, this mountainous farming village of 7,000 people in Fukushima Prefecture, recently voted one of Japan's most beautiful places, will join the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat on the planet's short list of nuclear casualties.

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