About 250 evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture and volunteers cleaned up a high school gymnasium Friday in Kasu, Saitama Prefecture, that had served as the last evacuation shelter for people who fled in 2011 from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant meltdown disaster.
During the peak in April 2011, about 1,423 evacuees from Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, stayed in the gym at Kisai High School. The gym is slated to be closed because the high school has been merged with another school.
"We need to keep moving forward. We cannot forever maintain a sense of victimization," said Mitsuo Horikawa, 57, who served as the community leader for evacuees at the gym.