For
The 15-year-old was advised by his school teacher to apply to become one of about 10,000 torchbearers through a public recruitment campaign but never thought that he would actually be selected.
"In the future, I hope people around the world will drink milk from the cattle that I raise," Ryoji, a third-year student at
The starting point of the 121-day relay is the J-Village soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture, which was used by
Despite the continuing spread of the new coronavirus around the world since December, including in
"By running, I want to let people know how far the reconstruction of Katsurao has come, though it is not yet complete," Ryoji said at his school in the village, which has a registered population of about 1,400 people, out of which only some 400 were actually living there as of
The J-Village training center resumed full operation last year as a sports complex, including a 5,000-capacity stadium and seven soccer fields with natural grass.
"I used to put on protective gear here before heading to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to give tours for the press," said
"Hosting the
"I think it is a great chance for the J-Village and Fukushima to spread information on the current situation since the disaster," Takana said.
Characterizing the
Still, public concern over radiation exposure was once again heightened after Greenpeace Japan informed the Japanese government and Olympic bodies last November that radioactive hot spots had been detected around the start of the torch relay route.
The discovery prompted
In January, the Fukushima prefectural government released the results of its own measurements and reiterated that radiation levels around the relay route pose no danger to runners and spectators.
The local government said their potential exposure will be well below the permissible level of 1 millisievert per year, even if they stay around a hot spot with the highest level of radiation for four hours.
On
Losing their cooling systems, three reactors at the plant suffered meltdowns and spewed radioactive particles into the air, forcing a mass evacuation of residents.
Like Ryoji's family, some people have returned to their hometowns and resumed livestock farming, in the hope of reviving one of the major industries in Fukushima Prefecture.
Animal husbandry accounted for about 24 percent of the agricultural production in the prefecture, second after rice, in 2017, according to the local government.
Since the nuclear disaster, dairy farmers have been tackling concerns about their products. To make sure that their milk is safe to consume, they need to continuously prove that it has no radioactive materials in official examinations.
Ryoji's father,
But the nuclear crisis forced him to dump milk in agricultural fields from the next day and evacuate the village. Along with many others, Sakuma had to slaughter his cattle for meat or sell them at below-market prices, while about a dozen of his cows died.
"All my farm came to zero with the loss at the time, after having spent years in finally achieving the goal of breeding cows only with high productivity," Sakuma said.
While he was finding refuge in several places both in and outside the prefecture, Sakuma vaguely dreamed of reopening a dairy farm but was unsure if he could do it when he thought of the enormous challenges ahead.
"Around then, my son wrote, 'I am determined to become a dairy farmer' in a calligraphy class at an elementary school. That gave me the final push I needed," Sakuma said.
Ryoji, who is now planning to study dairy farming at an agricultural high school in the prefecture, has been helping his father by getting up at five in the morning.
Sakuma and his family resettled in Katsurao in
Although the quantity of milk output has not recovered to the level before the disaster, his farm has already surpassed the quality of products of previous days.
In February this year, the farm won the top prize in a contest by the
Sakuma said it was the first time that the farm had won the award since his father started their dairy business more than 40 years ago.
Sakuma has tried to revitalize Katsurao through farming and said the number of his cattle is around 130 now, about the same as before the disaster, but about 30 of them are calves.
"I hope my son's run will inspire and motivate villagers who have been working to reconstruct the area day and night," Sakuma said.
However, there are some in the prefecture who remain skeptical of the idea of a "Reconstruction Olympics."
But Tanaka said he would feel slightly uncomfortable if too much emphasis is placed on the idea of "reconstruction" with respect to the
"In the end, it's the athletes who compete in the
Tanaka brought back dairy farming to Iitate in July last year, becoming the first person to do so following the nuclear accident.
The 49-year-old launched a calf-raising facility in the village where about 120 young Holsteins are currently being reared. He also runs a dairy farm, called Feliz Latte "reconstruction farm," with around 600 cattle in the city of Fukushima.
He said he will be happy if spectators and other visitors take the time to travel to disaster-stricken areas and see the progress in recovery, or some places that are lagging behind, during the
Nationwide, nearly 48,000 people have yet to return to their hometowns since the 2011 quake rocked
"I personally wonder what a 'Reconstruction Olympics' really means and how the games mainly played in
But as for the torch relay, the 33-year-old said, "It is good that people who know nothing about Katsurao will discover the village by some means," adding he hopes that many people will move into the village as he did.
==Kyodo
© Kyodo News International, Inc., source