I received this morning a mail in my box from _http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr, about a "poor" lonesome man near Fukushima. This fabulous man did not lose his faith, did not lose his love of life, did not lose his humor. Frankly, he made me smile until ears this morning!
I uploaded pictures received by mail and translated the text from French to English for sharing with you the life of this unexpected man.
Fukushima, the last man
During more than one months, the photoreporter Antonio Pagnotta regularly entered the restricted zone around the power plant of Fukushima in Japan. He met a man there who refused to evacuate places. He lives without water, without electricity. First shutter of a series of seven portfolios.
Also video link in French :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs5gd7_le-dernier-homme-de-fukushima-entretien-avec-le-photoreporter-antonio-pagnotta_news#from=embediframe
01
June 4th, 2011. Naoto Matsumura, 51 years, is the last inhabitant of Tomioka, a municipality close to Fukushima, which counted about 17 000 inhabitants before the disaster. This farmer refuses to be evacuated in spite of the radioactivity.
02
June 4th, 2011. The herds of cows locked into their tiny enclosures slowly expired and cowsheds became mass graves of carcasses in decomposition where ravens feast.
03
June 4th, 2011. Before the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear disaster, the prefecture of Fukushima counted 3 400 cows, 31 500 pigs and 630 000 hens, according to the ministry of agriculture.
04
June 4th, 2011. " Let be dying hundreds of animals is a crime! " Naoto Matsumura gets indignant.
05
July 9th, 2011. Four months after the disaster, some plants still grow in the restricted zone, a surface of 20 km of beam around the power plant Fukushima Daiichi.
06
June 4th, 2011. The committee on the nuclear security of Japan gave the figures of the radioactive contamination: in external dose accumulated during period from March 12th till April 24th, an adult who would have stayed in Tomioka would have received between 10 and 50 millisieverts (mSv). In France, the limit authorized for the exposure of the population is 1 mSv a year.
07
June 4th, 2011. Matsumura looks after his bees: " before I had thirty hives, but since the nuclear accident, I have there only two and bees produce few honey there. "
08
June 4th, 2011. Matsumura refuses to abandon the animals which survived a sure agony. Every morning, he goes of house to house to feed cats and dogs stayed on the spot because too wild to be captured or too aggressive to be taken in refuges. He also feeds his wild boars and his pigs which live with a band of cats.
09
July 10th, 2011. In the cemetery of the city, Matsumura continues to maintain graves.
10
June 4th, 2011. In front of the Pacific Ocean, where from on March 11th, 2011 appeared waves of more than 10 meters in height. This tsunami was caused by an earthquake of a magnitude 9,0 arisen off the northeast coast of the island of Honshu. Its epicenter was situated in 130 km east of Sendai, city localised in approximately 300 km in the northeast of Tokyo.
11
November 2nd, 2011. Naoto Matsumura on the ruins of the house of one of his friends, totally destroyed by the tsunami.
12
November 2nd, 2011. Naoto Matsumura in the house of one of his friends shows a photo of the sea front of Tomioka before he is completely destroyed by the tsunami.
13
November 2nd, 2011. Naoto Matsumura kept its humor. Here, in the station of Tomioka where herbs invaded railroads, he pretends to call the driver of a train which will never arrive.
14
November 2nd, 2011. On the green of the golf club of Tomioka, Matsumura pretends to strike an imaginary ball.
15
November 2nd, 2011. In a landscape in the autumnal colors, the dosimeter indicates microsieverts 5 per hour in 1,50 m of the ground. It would correspond over one year about 44 times the dose authorized for the populations.
16
November 2nd, 2011. In the greenhouse of an abandoned farm, the surviving cows come to take refuge, at night.
17
October 29th, 2011. This ostrich, baptized Boss, is the unique survivor of the farm of ostriches of Okumacho. Naoto Matsumura feeds it with food for animals.
18
November 2nd, 2011. In the campaign of Tomioka, the surviving cows come be caressed. In the next spring, the veterinary services of the prefecture of Fukushima will proceed to the slaughter of all the surviving animals in the restricted zone of Fukushima. Naoto Matsumura asserts that he will fight to prevent it. He takes photos to inform the survival of animals, photos were put at the disposal of the media.
19
November 2nd, 2011. In a former chicken farm in batteries, large-sized spiders invaded buildings, covering everything of their cobweb.
20
November 2nd, 2011. A friend of Naoto Matsumura, scientist of the Japanese space agency, made analyze mushrooms collected around his farm. They concentrate between 3 000 - 400 000 becquerels by kilo according to the varieties. Naoto Matsumura, who as all the Japanese rafolle of the cooked mushrooms, contents today with looking at them and with smelling their flavors.
21
November 2nd, 2011. In the forest of Tomioka with his dog Aki which shows him all its affection.
22
February 12th, 2012. A little more than three months later, his bitch, Aki, gave rise to five puppies.
23
February 12th, 2012. In the evacuated zone, there is not a water distribution anymore. Naoto Matsumura gets back the one who comes from the mountain.
24
February 9th, 2012. It has been eleven months since Naoto Matsumura lives alone in the zone. This evening, he has for dinner a box of tuna. There is not electricity anymore and it gets clearer in the candle.
