Ōkuma (Fukushima)

Ōkuma-machi 大熊 町
Geographical location in Japan
Region :	Tōhoku
Prefecture :	Fukushima
Coordinates :	37 ° 24 '  N , 140 ° 59'  E Coordinates: 37 ° 24 '16 "  N , 140 ° 59' 0"  E
Basic data
Surface:	78.70 km²
Residents :	196 (April 1, 2020)
Population density :	2 inhabitants per km²
Community key :	07545-1
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Tree :	Momi fir
Flower :	Nashi
Bird :	Black kite
town hall
Address :	Ōkuma Town Hall 634 Aza Ōno, Ōaza Shimonogami Ōkuma- machi , Futaba-gun Fukushima  979-1308
Website URL:	www.town.okuma.fukushima.jp
Location Ōkumas in Fukushima Prefecture

Ōkuma ( Japanese 大熊 町 , - machi ) is a ghost town in Japan in Futaba County in Fukushima Prefecture . The name is literally translated as "Big (大) Bear (熊)" and is also used with this spelling for the star constellation of the " Big Bear / Dare (大熊 座) ".

geography

Location of the town centers of Ōkuma and Futaba , west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (red position marker)

Ōkuma is located on the eastern Japanese Pacific coast and thus in the coastal region of Hamadōri in Fukushima Prefecture. Settlement was mainly concentrated along the Kuma River , especially within the center of Ōno about 5 km from the coast and the district of Kumamachi near the river mouth.

There were numerous industrial companies along the northern part of the coast. However, more than 1.5 km² of the commercial area is still used by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant .

The western half of the urban area belongs to the Abukuma highlands ( 阿 武 隈 高地 , -kōchi ) and, due to its very mountainous character, was hardly populated and characterized by forests.

Ōkuma is surrounded by the communities of Futaba in the northeast, Namie in the northwest, Tamura in the west, Kawauchi in the southwest and Tomioka in the southeast.

history

The community emerged on November 1, 1954 from the merger of the two villages Ōno ( 大 野村 , -mura ) and Kumamachi ( 熊 町 村 , -mura ). From their two place names, that of the new city was also formed.

Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster 2011

Location reference of Tomioka to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
and the long-term evacuation zones

As of April 22, 2011:
Orange = restricted area within a 20 km radius
Yellow = "Evacuation Prepared Area"
Pink = "Deliberate Evacuation Area"

As of June 15, 2012:
In addition to the restricted area and “Deliberate Evacuation Area”, there are 3 categories:
Category 1: Area ready for the evacuation order to be lifted
Category 2 = residents are prohibited from permanent residence.
Category 3 = long-term unsuitable for return of residents

In both cases, Ōkuma is completely within the exclusion zone

Damage and sacrifice

Ōkuma was hit on March 11, 2011 by the Tōhoku earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered . 61 residential buildings were completely destroyed, 95 partially. Due to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima triggered by the earthquake, the city had to be completely evacuated and the population and the city administration had to be resettled to Aizu-Wakamatsu in the west of the prefecture.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) reported 46 dead and one missing person for Ōkuma as a result of the Tōhoku triple disaster of 2011 up to their 145th damage report of March 13, 2012, then increased their number in their 146. Damage report from September 28, 2012 on 78 dead and one missing person and up to the 158th damage report from September 7, 2018 on 136 deaths.

Measured against the total population of Ōkuma, which was given as 11,515 in the 2010 census, the casualty rate from the 2011 disaster was 1.2%, if all dead and missing persons registered in the 157th FDMA damage report are taken into account.

evacuation

As a countermeasure to the nuclear disaster, a restricted area was designated around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant within a radius of 20 km. However, there were also many other locations with high radiation values ​​beyond this 20 km radius, as radioactive particles were carried away from the damaged power plant by the wind. These places included Ōkuma and 10 other villages and cities, including Minamisōma , Naraha , Tomioka , Kawauchi , Futaba , Namie , Katsurao , Iitate , Tamura and Kawamata . According to the evacuation orders of May 7, 2013, these regions were divided into four different categories according to their radioactive exposure: Areas with a radiation exposure of less than 20 mSv per year, which were treated by the government as a threshold value for permanent return Category 1. Areas of this Category 1 could be entered at their own discretion and without the use of protective equipment with the only restriction that they were not allowed to stay overnight there. These areas were ready for the evacuation order to be lifted. In areas with a radiation exposure between 20 and 50 mSv per year (category 2), residents were prohibited from permanent residence. Areas with over 50 mSv per year (category 3) were seen as unsuitable for a return of residents in the long term. A fourth evacuation area had a special status.

Since the decontamination of radioactive areas takes a long time, Namie, Ōkuma, Futaba and Tomioka local governments began planning “temporary cities” or migrant communities for those displaced from their original communities in late 2011. Both municipal administrations and public institutions as well as the residents have been moved to these temporary cities. In December 2011, the Fukushima Prefectural Administration formulated a reconstruction plan, the basic concepts of which were to build a safe and sustainable non-nuclear society, to revitalize Fukushima and to restore cities. In March 2012, a law of "Special Measures for Fukushima Rebirth" was passed. In July 2012, the Cabinet adopted basic guidelines for reconstruction in Fukushima with the aim of promoting post-nuclear reconstruction and resuscitation in a holistic manner. From September 2012 to March 2013, the four communities Namie, Ōkuma, Futaba and Tomioka - to which the residents could not return - formulated rehabilitation plans. Since it was not known when people would be able to return to their home parishes, plans included relocation to other parishes but not detailed rebuilding of the original parishes.

Restricted area

The Ōkumas area was completely within the designated restricted area. On December 10, 2012, Ōkuma was removed from the exclusion zone and instead graded according to radioactive contamination into the three zones of categories 1 (area ready for the evacuation order to be lifted), 2 (residents are prohibited from permanent residence) and 3 (long-term unsuitable for residents to return ) assigned. On March 31 and April 1, 2017, the Japanese government revoked the evacuation orders for around 32,000 residents from the four radiation-contaminated communities of Iitate, Kawamata, Namie and Tomioka, allowing them to return to their homes. The only places that were still the subject of evacuation orders were Futaba and Ōkuma and parts of the five neighboring towns and villages Minamisōma, Iitate, Namie, Tomioka and Katsurao.

traffic

Important highways in the community were the national road 6 to Chūō or Sendai , and the national road 288 to Kōriyama or Futaba.

There was a connection to the rail network via the JR Jōban line to Ueno station in Tokyo or Toride . The city's only train station was Ōno.

education

In the city were the elementary schools Ōno and Kumamachi as well as the middle school umakuma and the prefectural Futaba Shōyō high school ( 双 葉翔陽 高等学校 ).

Due to the evacuation to Aizu-Wakamatsu, a new elementary and middle school was opened there for the children of wurdekuma.

Town twinning

Sister city of Ōkuma has been Bathurst in the Australian state of New South Wales since March 1991 .

Web links

Commons : Ōkuma  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 10 万分 1 浸水 範 囲 概況 図 , 国土 地理 院 ( Kokudo Chiriin , Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, formerly: Geographical Survey Institute = GSI), www.gsi.go.jp: 地理 院 ホ ー ム> 防災 関 連> 平 成 23 年 （2011年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 に 関 す る 情報 提供> 10 万分 1 浸水 範 囲 概況 図:

The GSI published here a map with Okuma ( 浸水範囲概況図15 ) on which the 2011 flooded areas are drawn on the basis of reports of aerial photographs and satellite images from the Tōhoku tsunami, as far as was possible.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reiko Hasegawa: Disaster Evacuation from Japan's 2011 Tsunami Disaster and the Fukushima Nuclear Accident . In: Studies . No. 5 , 2013, ISSN  2258-7535 , p. 1-54 . (Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales, IDDRI).
2. ↑ Masaru Arakida, Mikio Ishiwatari: Evacuation . In: Federica Ranghieri, Mikio Ishiwatari (Ed.): Learning from Megadisasters - Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake . World Bank Publications, Washington, DC 2014, ISBN 978-1-4648-0153-2 , Chapter 11, pp. 99-108 , doi : 10.1596 / 978-1-4648-0153-2 ( limited preview in Google book search). , License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO.
3. ↑ Mikio Ishiwatari, Satoru Mimura, Hideki Ishii, Kenji Ohse, Akira Takagi: The Recovery Process in Fukushima . In: Federica Ranghieri, Mikio Ishiwatari (Ed.): Learning from Megadisasters - Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake . World Bank Publications, Washington, DC 2014, ISBN 978-1-4648-0153-2 , chap. 36 , p. 331–343 , doi : 10.1596 / 978-1-4648-0153-2 ( limited preview in Google book search). , here: p. 335, Map 36.1 "Rearrangement of evacuation zoning" "Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.", License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO.
4. ↑ Evacuation Areas Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), (METI Measures and Requests in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake> Assistance of Residents Affected by the Nuclear Incidents> Evacuation Areas): Restricted areas and areas to which evacuation orders have been issued (June 15, 2012) ( Memento July 9, 2018 on WebCite ) (PDF)
5. ↑ ^{a b} 平 成 23 年 （2011 年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （第 158 報） ( Memento from October 3, 2018 on WebCite ) , ホ ー ム> 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 (東 日本 大 震災) 被害 報> 【過去】 被害 報> 平 成 23 年 （2011 年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 被害 報 157 報 ～ (1 月 ～ 12 月) ( Memento from October 3, 2018 on WebCite ) , 総 務 省 消防 庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), 158. Damage report, September 7, 2018.
6. ↑ ^{a b} 東 日本 大 震災 図 説 集 . (No longer available online.) In: mainichi.jp. Mainichi Shimbun- sha, May 20, 2011, archived from the original on June 19, 2011 ; Retrieved June 19, 2011 (Japanese, overview of reported dead, missing and evacuated). 
7. ↑ Collective relocation of Fukushima residents. (No longer available online.) In: NHK World News. NHK, March 26, 2011, archived from the original on April 11, 2011 ; accessed on March 27, 2011 (English). 
8. ↑ 平 成 23 年 (2011 年) 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 (東 日本 大 震災） に つ い て （第 145 報) ( Memento from April 12, 2018 on WebCite ) ( PDF ( Memento from April 12, 2018 on WebCite )), 総 務 省 消防庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), 145th report, March 13, 2012.
9. ↑ 平 成 23 年 (2011 年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （第 124 報) ( Memento from March 25, 2018 on WebCite ) ( PDF ( Memento from March 25, 2018 on WebCite )), 総 務 省 消防 庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), 124th report, May 19, 2011.
10. ↑ 平 成 23 年 (2011 年) 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （東 日本 大 震災） に つ い て (第 146 報) ( Memento from April 12, 2018 on WebCite ) ( PDF ( Memento from April 12, 2018 on WebCite )), 総 務 省 消防庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), 146th report, September 28, 2012.
11. ↑ 平 成 22 年 国 勢 調査 - 人口 等 基本 集 計 結果 - （岩手 県 ， 宮城 県 及 び 福島 県） ( Memento from March 24, 2018 on WebCite ) (PDF, Japanese), stat.go.jp (Statistics Japan - Statistics Bureau , Ministry of Internal Affairs and communication), 2010 Census, Summary of Results for Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, URL: http://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2010/index.html .
12. ↑ 平 成 23 年 （2011 年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （東 日本 大 震災） に つ い て （第 157 報） ( Memento of March 18, 2018 on WebCite ) ( PDF ( Memento of March 18, 2018 on WebCite )), 総 務 省 消防庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), March 7, 2018.
13. ↑ Dinil Pushpalal, Zhang Yan, Tran Thi Diem Thi, Yuri Scherbak, Michiko Kohama: Tears of Namie: An Appraisal of Human Security in the Township of Namie . In: Dinil Pushpalal, Jakob Rhyner, Vilma Hossini (eds.): The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake 11 March 2011: Lessons Learned And Research Questions - Conference Proceedings (11 March 2013, UN Campus, Bonn) . 2013, ISBN 978-3-944535-20-3 , ISSN  2075-0498 , pp. 80-87 .
14. ↑ Mikio Ishiwatari, Satoru Mimura, Hideki Ishii, Kenji Ohse, Akira Takagi: The Recovery Process in Fukushima . In: Federica Ranghieri, Mikio Ishiwatari (Ed.): Learning from Megadisasters - Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake . World Bank Publications, Washington, DC 2014, ISBN 978-1-4648-0153-2 , chap. 36 , p. 331–343 , doi : 10.1596 / 978-1-4648-0153-2 ( limited preview in Google book search). , License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO.
15. ↑ Evacuation Areas Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), (METI Measures and Requests in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake> Assistance of Residents Affected by the Nuclear Incidents> Evacuation Areas): Restricted areas and areas to which evacuation orders have been issued (From April 1, 2012) ( Memento July 14, 2018 on WebCite ) (PDF)
16. ↑ Evacuation Areas Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), (METI Measures and Requests in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake> Assistance of Residents Affected by the Nuclear Incidents> Evacuation Areas): Restricted areas and areas to which evacuation orders have been issued (May 7, 2013) ( Memento July 14, 2018 on WebCite ) (PDF)
17. ↑ Even as Evacuation Orders are Lifted, Recovery Remains Distant Prospect for Many Fukushima Residents ( Memento July 14, 2018 on WebCite ) , nippon.com, May 24, 2017, by Suzuki Hiroshi.
18. ↑ Sister City - Bathurst has had a sister city relationship with Ohkuma (Japan) since March 1991. (No longer available online.) In: Bathurst Regional Council. Bathurst Regional Council, archived from the original on February 5, 2014 ; accessed on April 3, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ^ Sister City. (No longer available online.) Bathurst Regional Council, archived from the original on June 14, 2009 ; accessed on August 10, 2016 .