With little hope of returning home, children from the town of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, are making new friends at a school in Saitama Prefecture that took them in two years ago after the meltdowns of March 2011 ruined the area.

Shortly after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region and knocked the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant out of control, its cohost Futaba, only 7 km away from the plant, had to evacuate to escape the radiation.

The Futaba municipal office was soon transferred to an evacuation center built in what used to be Kisai High School in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, where about 133 evacuees were living as of March 1, the town said.