Eerie Photos of Fukushima's Ghost Towns
Five years after a natural disaster and nuclear meltdown, a once fertile landscape is abandoned.
It's been five years since a tsunami caused by an earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The wave triggered the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. And the land remains contaminated.
Fukushima Prefecture, once known for its fertility, is now littered with large black sacks containing radioactive soil, organic matter, and stone. It was scraped from farmland in an effort to make the area habitable again for the families that have lived here for centuries.
Tomioka has been evacuated for years. Tsunami-damaged buildings still stand, cars smashed like soda cans are piled up, and vending machines washed in by the tsunami have not yet been scrapped. Expanses of bags full of radioactive soil can
