It’s been almost four years since the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station rocked Japan. The nearby town of Namie got some of the worst radiation following the meltdown. It’s nearly 21,000 residents were quickly evacuated during the disaster and they still have not been allowed to return.
Today, Namie is an irradiated ghost town. No place in the town more accurately captures this tragic status-quo than the Namie Elementary School. School bags and music instruments still sit in their places from when it was hastily evacuated in 2011.
While the government will not allow residents to return home, the Google Street View team was allowed to visit the school and surrounding town. The photos they took are completely heartbreaking.
The overgrown exterior of the school.
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Children’s art projects still hanging in the hallway.
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A quiet hallway.
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There are still lessons written on the board.
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The water fountains covered in a tarp.
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Ghostly.
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An untouched pile of music stands.
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School bags hanging and waiting for their owners to return.
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A long, lifeless corridor.
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Children will never play with those toys again.
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Instruments lined up for music class.
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Evidence of a quick evacuation.
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The untouched school library.
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More instruments, still in their cases.
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These halls may never been filled with music again.
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(source: Abandoned PW)
This is ghostly. The saddest part is that radiation levels are expected to remain high in the area for the foreseeable future. Those bags will be waiting there a long time for their owners to return.
