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Last month photographer Keow Wee Loong and two colleagues outwitted authorities and entered the Fukushima exclusion zone.
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For Loong, the abandoned villages turned out to be unsettling.
In some, even the traffic lights were still working, despite the fact that no car has circulated in the area in five years.
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Loong managed to enter some abandoned houses.
The photographer appears in most of his images.
He puts his camera on a tripod and a timer to capture the snapshots.
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A calendar lost in time.
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Loong found clean clothes abandoned in a dry cleaners.
He says that this is a reflection of the panic of the inhabitants after the natural disaster.
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Among the places Loong went is this store.
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In this abandoned house everything remains intact.
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Loong goes through magazines and books abandoned in a store.
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The photographer explored various stores, where he found valuables such as this gold ring.
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He also found this box of a PlayStation 2.
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All these magazines are from 2011.
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These cars for sale, once brand new, are now covered in plants.
(CNN) -
After 10 years of the largest earthquake in Japanese history, we review the key facts about the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
At 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake occurred 372 km northwest of Tokyo, at a depth of 245 km.
The earthquake triggered a tsunami with 30-foot waves that damaged several nuclear reactors in the area.
It is the largest earthquake in the history of Japan.
Number of people who died and disappeared
(Source: Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency)
In total, more than 22,000 deaths and disappearances combined (about 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing persons) were confirmed.
The deaths were the result of the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami, as well as health conditions after the disaster.
Other key facts
Japan had 54 nuclear reactors at the time of the earthquake, two under construction, and 17 power plants that produced about 30% of the country's electricity (International Atomic Energy Agency, 2011).
The property damage from the Japan earthquake and tsunami is estimated to have been worth about 25 trillion yen (US $ 300 billion).
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There are six reactors at the Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi plant which is located about 65 km south of Sendai.
A microsievert (mSv) is an internationally recognized unit for measuring radiation doses.
People are typically exposed to a total of about 1,000 microsieverts in a year.
The Japanese government estimated that the tsunami carried about 5 million tons of debris offshore, but that 70% sank, leaving 1.5 million tons floating in the Pacific Ocean.
The remains were not considered radioactive.
Timeline of the Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and disaster
(All references are to local time in Japan)
March 11, 2011 -
At 2:46 p.m. an earthquake
of magnitude 8.9
occurs
372 km northeast of Tokyo (that was the magnitude that was originally recorded, then it was updated to 9.0 and later to 9, 1).
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues a
tsunami watch
for the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the United States.
About an hour after the earthquake,
waves up to 30 feet high
hit the Japanese coast.
They drag vehicles, cause buildings to collapse, and cut roads and highways.
The Japanese government declares a
state of emergency
for the nuclear power plant near Sendai, 290 km from Tokyo.
Between 60 and 70,000 people living nearby are ordered to evacuate.
March 12, 2011 -
A 6.2 magnitude aftershock hits Nagano and Niigata prefectures overnight.
At 5:00 am a
nuclear emergency is declared at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant
.
Another 6.3-magnitude aftershock hits the west coast of Honshu at 5:56 a.m.
The Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announces that radiation near the main door of the plant is eight times higher than normal.
Cooling systems fail in three of the four units at the Fukushima Daini plant and a state of emergency is declared there.
At least six million homes, 10% of the total in Japan, do not have electricity and one million do not have water.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake appears to have displaced Honshu, Japan's main island, by about 2.5 meters and displaced the earth on its axis.
March 13, 2011 -
People living within a 10 km radius of Fukushima Daini and 20 km of Fukushima Daiichi power plants begin to evacuate by order of the Government.
So far there are around 185,000 evacuees
.
50,000 personnel from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force assist in rescue efforts, involving 190 aircraft and 25 ships.
So far, three units at the plant have had
problems cooling radioactive material
.
March 14, 2011 -
An explosion at the Daiichi Plant Reactor No. 3 causes the wall of a building to collapse and six people are injured.
The plant's No. 2 reactor loses its cooling capacity.
Officials are working quickly to pump water into the reactor, as they have been doing with two other reactors at the same plant, and the situation is resolved.
Workers rush to cool the fuel rods in the plant's two other reactors, No. 1 and No. 3.
Blackouts begin in parts of Tokyo and eight prefectures.
Up to 45 million people will be affected by the cuts.
March 15, 2011 -
The third explosion at the Daiichi plant in four days damages the suppression pool of reactor No. 2. Water continues to be injected to cool the radioactive material.
March 16, 2011 -
In an unusual speech, Emperor Akihito tells the nation not to lose hope, that "we have to understand and help each other."
In Japan, a televised speech by a sitting emperor is a very rare event, usually reserved for times of extreme crisis or war.
After hydrogen explosions occur in three of the plant's reactors (1, 2 and 3), Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the radiation levels "do not pose a direct threat to the human body." at a distance of between 20 and 30 km from the plant.
March 17, 2011 -
The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission informs the United States Congress that the spent fuel rods in reactor No. 4 have been exposed because "there is no water in the spent fuel pool," which has resulted in the emission of
"extremely high" radiation levels
.
Helicopters manned by the Japan Self-Defense Forces begin pouring tons of water from the Pacific into the No. 3 reactor to reduce overheating.
Radiation levels reach 20 millisieverts per hour in an annex building where workers have been trying to restore power, the highest level ever recorded according to the power company.
March 18, 2011 -
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
raises the threat level from 4 to 5
.
It is on par with the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
The International Scale of Nuclear Events says that a Level 5 incident means there is the possibility of a release of radioactive material, radiation deaths, and severe damage to the reactor core.
April 12, 2011 -
Japan's nuclear agency
raises the level of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis from 5 to 7
, the highest possible.
It is now on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
in the former Soviet Union.
This level implies a "serious release of radioactive material with widespread effects on health and the environment requiring the application of planned and expanded countermeasures".
June 6, 2011 -
Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters reports that
reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a total collapse
.
October 31, 2011 -
In response to questions about the safety of decontaminated water,
a government official drinks a glass of decontaminated water drawn from a puddle at the
Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear
power plant.
November 17, 2011 -
Japanese authorities announce that they have stopped shipping rice from some farms northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant after finding radioactive cesium levels higher than permitted.
December 16, 2011 -
The Prime Minister says
a 'cold shutdown' was achieved at the Fukushima Daiichi plant
, a symbolic milestone that means the plant's
failed
reactors have been at temperatures below boiling point for some time. weather.
December 26, 2011 -
Investigators report that operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, who lacked training, misinterpreted a key system and
waited too long to start pumping water
to the units, according to an interim report by the government commission. investigating the nuclear accident.
February 27, 2012 -
Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation,
an independent investigative committee, publishes a report claiming that the Japanese government withheld its most alarming assessments
of the nuclear accident from both the public and the United States.
June 11, 2012 -
At least 1,324
Fukushima residents file a criminal complaint
with the Fukushima prosecutor's office, naming Tsunehisa Katsumata, president of the Tokyo Electric Company, and 32 other individuals responsible for causing the nuclear disaster and exposing the population of Fukushima to radiation.
July 5, 2012 -
The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission's report
concludes that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis was a "man-made disaster"
that occurred as a result of collusion between the facility operator, regulators and government.
The report also attributes the plant's failures before and after March 11 specifically to Japanese culture.
LOOK: Despite the warnings, he lives in Fukushima to take care of 41 stray cats
October 12, 2012 -
TEPCO acknowledges in a report that it downplayed the security risks
at the Fukushima Daiichi plant for fear that additional measures would lead to the closure of the plant and feed public anxiety and anti-nuclear movements.
July 2013 -
TEPCO admits
radioactive groundwater is leaking into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima Daiichi
.
November 18, 2013 -
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says operators at the Fukushima nuclear plant have begun removing 1,500 fuel rods from the damaged No. 4 reactor.
It is considered
a milestone in the cleanup operation with an estimated value of US $ 50,000 million
.
February 20, 2014 -
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says that approximately 100 metric tons of radioactive water have leaked from a holding tank in Fukushima.
October 19, 2015 -
Japan's Ministry of Health says
a Fukushima worker has been diagnosed with leukemia.
It is the first cancer diagnosis related to cleaning work
.
February 29, 2016 -
Three
former executives of the electric company are charged with professional negligence
.
November 22, 2016 -
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake shakes Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures and is considered an aftershock of the 2011 earthquake
.
Aftershocks can sometimes happen years after the original earthquake.
February 13, 2021 -
A
7.1 magnitude earthquake off the east coast of Japan
is a replica of the 2011 one, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Fukushima