Children in Fukushima Prefecture have developed more psychological problems than their counterparts in the two other prefectures devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami 13 years ago.

One major reason for this is that the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant forced many children to repeatedly move to other locations and schools. This made it difficult for them to form tight bonds with friends.

These children have reached adulthood, and various problems stemming from troubles in their youth years have emerged.

Urara Aoyama, 23, feels that she and other children in Fukushima had to internalize the obstacles they faced in their daily lives as children.

Although school classes were held at evacuation centers just weeks after the disaster, the lunches were often meager, and many students complained they were hungry during the last period of the day.

Teachers banned children from saying, “I’m hungry.”

Aoyama grew up in Okuma, one of the municipalities hosting the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

She was a fourth-grader when the triple meltdown occurred. Her family evacuated to Aizu-Wakamatsu about 100 kilometers away, changed evacuation centers and finally settled in a neighboring town. Her grandparents came to live with her family.

All of Okuma was designated as off-limits. The elementary school there resumed classes in Aizu-Wakamatsu, and Aoyama’s father drove 90 minutes every day to take her to school.

She began experiencing health problems after moving once again and entering a junior high school in Aizu-Wakamatsu. Some of her classmates wondered if radiation had caused strands of her hair to turn white.

Aoyama began developing fevers regularly, and she often spent time in the school nurse’s office rather than the classroom.

She appeared to improve in senior high school and college, in part because she made friends. But her worries resurfaced with the novel coronavirus pandemic, and she stopped going to college for about six months.

In senior high school, an older student who had also evacuated told Aoyama: “There is no evacuee who is not affected. Everyone has a time bomb inside them.”

Aoyama said, “I thought I was all right, but my bomb must have exploded.”

She was able to take a more positive attitude thanks to her friends, and she has been working at an apparel outlet in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district for about six months.

Although she still has to stay home on days when she does not feel 100 percent physically, she enjoys her work. Her company asked if she would take on the responsibility of deputy store manager.

But she has been hesitant about accepting the promotion because she is not confident she can go the extra mile.

Many children were forced to evacuate their homes after the New Year’s Day earthquake in the Noto Peninsula. Aoyama said she hoped adults would allow children to express their feelings when they are troubled by the difficulties they face.

BECOMING A SOCIAL RECLUSE

Not everyone has been able to take a positive attitude.

A 24-year-old man who was in the fifth grade when the triple disaster hit dropped out of a Fukushima senior high school in his final year. He has become a recluse at home.

An evacuation order was issued for the municipality where his family lived, forcing them to live in gymnasiums and temporary shelters.

He could not adjust to the new schools and told his family he wanted to return to their hometown. He became more absent from school.

Although he returned to the hometown six years ago, he has been unable to leave the home. His grandmother said the natural disaster changed him.

CHILDREN AT GREATEST RISK

The Fukushima prefectural government has conducted health checks on those who evacuated after the nuclear disaster.

In the most recent study conducted in fiscal 2021, respondents were asked if they experienced high-risk psychological problems.

The ratio of those 65 and older who said “yes” was 4.8 percent, while the figure was 7 percent for those between 40 and 64.

The ratio surged to 8.8 percent for those between 16 and 39, more than double the 3 percent of the general population who were not affected by the natural disaster.

“The results are completely opposite to the normal pattern for natural disasters in which senior citizens are at the highest risk,” said an official with Fukushima Medical University, which conducted the study. “It shows the peculiarity of the nuclear disaster in which children of that time have not had their psychological scars healed compared to adults.”

Hiroyuki Chubachi, 49, heads Beans Fukushima, a nonprofit organization that provides learning support to children.

“There are many who continue to have trauma even after becoming adults,” Chubachi said. “One factor may have been that the parents could not deal more directly with their children because they themselves were also facing a very difficult situation living as evacuees with so much uncertainty about their own future.”

MULTIPLE SCHOOL CHANGES A FACTOR

In 2012, the education ministry conducted a survey of about 330,000 parents in the three hardest hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

Fukushima had by far the largest number of children with at least one physical or psychological problems, according to the survey.

Doctors and scholars who provided support to the Fukushima children said the frequent changing of schools was a factor behind the large incidence of health problems.

In 2011, about 18,000 students in Fukushima Prefecture changed schools, a far larger number than the 4,000 or so in Miyagi Prefecture and the approximately 1,000 students in Iwate Prefecture, according to the education ministry.

In 2011, there were 1,413 students in elementary and junior high schools in Tomioka, a Fukushima Prefecture municipality where all residents were ordered to evacuate, according to an Asahi Shimbun study.

The town government confirmed the addresses of 1,052 of those students in the first year after the disaster, and all of them had switched to a different school where they had relocated to.

In one year alone, 387 students had changed schools twice and 35 changed schools three times.

A total of 585 Tomioka students moved temporarily to schools outside Fukushima.