What happened to the Fukushima 50?

Despite the popular narrative that these men worked at post-tsunami Fukushima out of heroism, many of them had different motives, like Nakagawa, whose company had ties to TEPCO. There were day laborers from the poorest neighborhoods of Tokyo and Osaka who went to Fukushima for the money. Some were members of the yakuza, the Japanese mafia, say workers interviewed for this story. The practice continued until the summer, when a law was passed that made it illegal for companies to have contact with organized criminals. But as long as these people were willing to work, it didn’t matter where they came from, the workers say…

Others say they were threatened–or at least pressured–to work at the plant. Kenji Yamamoto, a co-owner of an electrical-engineering company, says that after the explosion TEPCO and related contractors pushed local businesses to send workers to the plant. “They were desperate for workers, and threatened some companies that they’ll never be able to do business in Fukushima again if they refused,” he says. Such a threat was very real to people who lived and worked in Fukushima prefecture, where the local economy relies heavily on the power company. For many small businesses, there was no way not to work for TEPCO…

For the Fukushima 50, the crisis is also far from over. Workers have seen too much to be optimistic about the decontamination efforts in surrounding areas of the plant. Says Takeshi Nomura, who worked in the plant and is now part of the decontamination effort: “They tell us decontamination would take three years. It’s utter bullshit. It’s going to take longer than that before people are going to feel safe enough to come back … That day may never come.”

As for the workers themselves, Nakagawa now knows he has been exposed to heavy doses of radiation, but he is still waiting for test results from a full medical checkup he had in December. He asks: “Am I going to be OK?”