Photographer Giles Price captures ghostly images of Fukushima with thermal technology

Nearly 10 years after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown devastated Japan's Fukushima region, Giles Price travelled there to document its slow repopulation process.

He saw scenes of both "decontamination and reconstruction" that are still underway even as Japan touts its recovery ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"Normal life is not what it was before," the photographer, who visited the region in 2017 and 2018, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.

"The people who have now moved back, they can't fish, they can't farm, they can't hunt. They can only live in certain decontaminated areas. So the life you move back into is ... radically altered from the life it was before."

Price entered Fukushima by travelling through the country's Highway 114, which is still swathed in radiation.

He wasn't allowed to open his window or stop moving while travelling along the road. He and his team were issued a mandatory Geiger counter to keep track of nearby radiation.

His new book Restricted Residence includes photos he shot with an infrared "thermal technology often used in medicine and surveying," according to publisher Loose Joints, dousing the landscapes in cold blue-green hues and illuminating people in red-hot hues.

It's an eye-catching method of representing residents' worries about a potential threat to their health that remains unseen.

"Of course … there's no way of perceiving radiation or fallout. You can't physically see it, taste it, smell it, touch it in any capacity," he said.

Price drew parallels to current worries about the COVID-19 outbreaks around the world, which are also top of mind as the Olympics draw near.

"There's an aspect of you know, perception and anxiety, just because you don't know what you're interacting with and whether that may be harmful to you."

Lingering anxieties

On Wednesday, the Japanese government partially lifted an entry ban on Futuba, the last town to remain off-limits, which lies about four kilometres away from the wrecked nuclear plant.

Officials say prospects for the return of Futaba's former residents are grim because of lingering concern about radiation. Many residents have also found new jobs and communities after evacuating, and only about 10 per cent say they plan to return.

While the government has assured residents that background radiation in the newly reopened areas are safe, it hasn't alleviated everyone's anxieties.

"There's a lot of debate from the likes of Greenpeace and other sorts of organizations that they've set the limits too high," he said.

Price spent most of his time in two towns called Namie and Iitate, which he says had a total population of about 28,000 before the meltdown.

"My last trip there, which was early spring 2018, there were about 500 people living back there," he said.

He spoke to people who decided to return to the area after being told the radiation levels in their towns were once again safe.

Some told him they had no other options; older residents were less concerned about potential long-term health implications, "by default of their age," he said.

Decontamination efforts continue

According to The Associated Press, it will take decades to decontaminate and eventually decommission the Fukushima Daiichi facility.

The government is currently building temporary storage for massive amounts of debris and soil held in massive, "hay bale-type containers" that "litter the landscape all throughout the area," said Price.

And fishermen and residents fear possible health effects from radioactive water the government plans to release back into the sea.

"Over the last nine years, there are millions of litres of this water — toxic water — which they've been able to decontaminate most of the elements out of it, but there are still a few elements in there that they can't get rid of," said Price.

He says he was drawn to Fukushima for his latest book and photography project because there's an ongoing, "wider conversation" about climate issues and environmental disasters — and how to either recover from, or simply learn to live with, the repercussions of the latter.

For his own sake, however, he says he wouldn't choose to move to the Fukushima region any time soon, given the facility's current state. 

"I think if the reactor was fixed, then that might be another, you know, train of thought."

Written by Jonathan Ore with files from The Associated Press. Interview produced by Rachel Levy-McLaughlin.

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