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Carrying OnIn many ways, Fukushima, Japan, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years, is like no other place on the planet. Two years after an accident that led to a nuclear meltdown, the region is still plagued by residual radiation, high risks of cancer, and families still struggling with the economic and health effects from the accident, which was caused by a powerful offshore tsunami.But human ingenuity has a way of moving in where it's needed most, and Fukushima is slowly growing into a new outpost of young, creative, and resilient people committed to reviving their broken region.Here, Akie Hashimoto, a 28-year-old dollmaker, has continued her trade in her family's workshop in Koriyana, just 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Fukushima power plant. Not one to leave her devastated city, Hashimoto has said that her family has been making dolls in Fukushima for 18 generations, according to the European Pressphoto Agency.—Dan Stone

Photograph by Everett Kennedy Brown, European Pressphoto Agency