Physician Hironobu Tokunaga says it is his mission to pass on the lessons learned from his experience dealing with the Fukushima No. 1 reactor meltdowns to the younger generation.

Tokunaga, 42, was dispatched to Sendai by University of Fukui Hospital as a member of the disaster assistance team immediately after the magnitude-9.0 quake sent tsunami barreling into Tohoku's coastline on March 11, 2011. Two days later, he was assigned to the Fukushima Prefectural Government's disaster headquarters.

As a doctor from Fukui, which has more reactors than any other prefecture, Tokunaga was inundated with questions from hospitals about radioactive contamination, but "even doctors and nurses lacked sufficient knowledge about radioactive contamination and exposure," he said.