Editor’s note: This is the last installment of a five-part series looking at the lives of people in Fukushima Prefecture with a particular focus on their meals 12 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. Through their meals, the series depicts how the nuclear power plant disaster totally changed people’s lives in the region.

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OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Every day, Mitsuhide Ikeda feeds and keeps alive the very animals that are preventing him from earning a living.

Ikeda, 61, a livestock farmer in Okuma town, says his cattle, which were left behind at his farm here during the Fukushima nuclear disaster, had earlier saved his family, and he cannot bring himself to put them down.

His goal is to keep the cattle alive for as long as possible, even though they will never generate any money for him.

Ikeda feeds the cattle from 300-kilogram round bales of hay in the morning and evening.

When he cracks open the bales, the sweet aroma of fermented grass spreads throughout his farm. The cattle immediately come to him. Some of them can’t wait and poke the hay rolls with their horns.

“No, no boy,” Ikeda says with a smile.

After one recent meal, he said: “Finally, I could fully feed the cattle. Not one head of cattle died in the past year.”

‘LAST MEALS’ AFTER 3/11

Before the nuclear accident in 2011, Ikeda was raising calves born from his cows and eventually shipping them.

The cattle’s food was his top priority. Although he sometimes skimped on his own meals by grabbing food at a convenience store, he never cut corners when it came to feeding his cattle.

In those days, he fed his cattle in the morning and evening every single day.

He said he still vividly remembers his cattle’s “last meal” on March 12, 2011, the day after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck.

Okuma co-hosts the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and residents were told to evacuate after explosion at a reactor building there.

Before fleeing to the neighboring city of Tamura, Ikeda, with tears rolling down on his face, gave his cattle twice the usual amount of food.

“I won’t be coming back,” he told them. “Please survive for as long as you can.”

While he lived in evacuation, about 30 of his cattle ran away from the farm and became feral.

The Okuma town government told him, “We will kill the cattle unless you fence them off.”

Ikeda said that when he was working at a construction company, he could make ends meet only through extra earnings from his livestock.

He felt his cattle had enabled him and his family to live.

So every time he returned to the town, he rounded up the escaped cattle and brought them back to his farm.

Eventually, he had more than 60 cattle, including those of his wife’s family.

But securing food for all the animals became a serious challenge.

While living in Tamura, he couldn’t grow grass on his farm. His acquaintances provided hay bales, but the amount was far from enough.

“My cattle died one after another,” he said.

The surviving cattle cannot be moved or shipped because they may have been exposed to radioactive materials.

They do not generate any money.

But Ikeda continues to feed them because he wants them to live.

Cattle normally live for 15 to 20 years. Ikeda now has 17 cattle between 11 and 18 years old. The eldest one can barely walk.

SURVIVING ON COMPENSATION

In 2020, Ikeda was allowed unrestricted access to his farm. He could finally grow grass there to provide sufficient food for his animals.

“I grow grass without relying on compound feed,” he said. “I also put my cattle out to pasture, so they are now probably eating better than ever.”

Although he can supply enough food for his cattle by himself, it costs more than 10 million yen ($73,000) annually to grow the grass, including expenses for fertilizers and fuel for farm machinery.

The compensation for the disaster that he receives can cover the costs for now, but he does not know how long he can continue operating this way.

To recover his business, Ikeda needs to raise cattle that can be sold. But new cattle cannot mix at the same farm as cattle that may have been exposed to radioactive substances.

“We can’t make money as long as cattle that were here at the time of the accident continue to live on the farm,” Ikeda said.

He said the thought has crossed his mind that the day may come when he will have to slaughter the cattle that he raised by his own hands.