Hero for the animals of Fukushima, Japan

Hero for the animals of Fukushima, Japan

 

The largest earthquake in Japan’s history, followed by a giant tsunami, damaged a nuclear power plant, spreading  deadly radiation over a wide area. Everyone evacuated the area except for one person, a rice farmer named Naoto Matsumura,  who stayed to take care of the animals people left behind to die slowly of starvation. He found birds dying in locked cages, a cow and her calf crying in a corner of a barn, and worse. Matsumura is outraged that neither the people who lived with the animals nor the government is willing to do anything to help. Staying there and dying from radiation poisoning are his protest against an uncaring world.

Matsumura has lived for a year without running water, electricity, or human companionship. Occasionally, he leaves to buy food for the animals and then must sneak back in, past the police barrier into a zone too dangerous to sustain life.  People from around the world have donated to the cost of buying food for the animals.

Before the disaster, the Japanese government planned to meet at least half its energy needs from nuclear power. Since the disaster, which killed thousands of people and countless animals and destroyed nature for decades to come, the government announced that those plans have been dropped in favor of renewable sources of energy, like solar and wind power, biomass, and conservation.

Photos: Matsumura with a few of the hundreds of abandoned animals he cares for.