All language subtitles for Children.of.the.Tsunami.2012.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

WAVES

(music and waves)

This is the story of
the Japanese tsunami

and the nuclear disaster
which followed,

told through the
eyes of children.

SOFT AMBIENT MUSIC

The Tsunami struck on a
Friday afternoon,

just before the end of
the school day.

It destroyed dozens of
schools,

along two hundred
miles of Japan's

north east coast.

All the schools evacuated
to high ground,

except for one.

Okawa Primary School

more than two miles inland,

by the Kitakami River.

SOUNDS OF CHILDREN PLAYING

10 year old twins Soma and Fuka
were in the 4th year.

WAVES

The earthquake which produced
the tsunami struck at 2:46

in the afternoon on
the 11th of March

The earthquake measured 9 on
the the Richter scale

and lasted more than
two minutes.

WAVES CRASHING

Before hitting Okawa Primary

the tsunami would destroy
two other schools

closer to the sea.

The first stood by the river
mouth,

looking out over the
ocean.

The teachers at this school
led the children to safety

on higher ground.

Now the tsunami surged up
the Kitakami river,

engulfing a second primary
school.

Teachers and children at this
school

escaped to the roof.

WATER CRASHING

Now the Tsunami
headed for Okawa,

the school furthest inland.

DRIPPING SOUNDS

More than half an hour
had passed

since the earthquake.

Around 100 children were
still in the playground,

waiting.

The teachers were debating

whether to go up the hill
behind the school

used as a nature trail

or head for the near by bridge.

EERIE MUSIC

THREATING MUSIC

In the space of half an hour

the tsunami laid waste
to two hundred miles

of Japan's Pacific coastline,

and claimed 19000 lives.

ROARING WAVES CRASHING

As the tsunami subsided,

a hundred miles south
of Okawa Primary School

in Fukushima

another calamity was unleashed.

The tsunami had knocked
out the cooling system

at Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station.

Nuclear fuel in three of
its reactors

began to melt down.

As the power company struggled
to regain control of the plant

one of the reactors exploded.

Two days after the first,

a second explosion

released a cloud of
radioactive dust

high into the atmosphere.

BIRD CROWS

26 hours after the
tsunami,

the goverment issued
an evacuation order

to everyone living within
12 miles of the plant.

Over the next two days

80,000 people abandoned
their homes.

The goverment imposed

a 12 mile exclusion zone,

sealing off the plant

and the now empty towns

from the outside world

10 year old Rikku
is from Tomioka,

a town deep inside
the exclusion zone.

It could be decades

before children can
go back to Tomioka.

Radioactive contamination
didn't stop at the boundary

of the exclusion zone, which
was an arbitrary line

drawn by the authorities.

It spread throughout the
wider Fukushima area,

creating ghost towns
up to 30 miles

from the plant.

Many families with children
fled to distant parts of Japan.

But some,

reluctant to leave
their home area,

evacuated no further
than Minamisoma,

the city on the very edge

of the exclusion zone.

Children from the
exclusion zone

were absorbed into
Minamisoma's schools.

CHILDREN SINGING

The children of the
exclusion zone

exist in a kind of limbo,

waiting for the authorities
to decide when or if

they can return to their homes.

The nuclear accident took
away not just their homes,

but their communities and
most of their friends.

In the meantime,
they've had to adapt

to a strange new
world in the shadow

of the stricken reactor.

REACTOR HUMMING

10 year old Saki's
bedroom window

looks out over the
exclusion zone.

PLAYING INSTRUMENT

Saki's home town

lies beyond the barrier.

PLAYING INSTRUMENT

GEIGER COUNTER CLICKING

CHILDREN SINGINGAND PLAYING

For the children of Fukushima,

learning about the
dangers of radiation

has become part of growing up.

As part of a long
term experiment,

every child in Fukushima

has been asked to
carry a dosimeter,

which records their
exposure to radiation.

CHILD SHOUTING

BEEPING GEIGER COUNTER

CHILDREN SINGING

Good morning everyone.

How are you?

Today we have a nice day.

SCHOOLCHILDREN SINGING

CHILDREN SINGING

CHILDREN PLAYINGAND LAUGHING

Ayaka is an evacuee from
the exclusion zone,

but she has nowhere
to go back to.

Her family home was destroyed

by the tsunami.

All that's left

are the foundations.

Akaka's grandfather was at home

when the tsunami came.

At weekends Ayaka is
allowed to play outside,

but only once her
father has checked

the radiation in the street.

Radioactivity in Ayaka's street,

measured in microsieverts,

is 15 to 20 times what is was

before the accident.

While the children of Fukushima
adapted to a new way of living,

a hundred miles north where
the tsunami hit hardest,

nearly 4000 of its victims
were still missing.

MACHINERY SOUNDS

At Okawa Primary School
On the Kitakami River,

10 teachers and 74 children
died that Friday afternoon

Two months after the tsunami,

6 children and 1 teacher
were still missing.

When the authorities
scaled down there efforts.

Naomi and a few other parents
carried on searching

While a handful of parents look
for their children's remains,

others were searching
for an explanation.

The school authorities
had delayed 4 weeks

before meeting with
bereaved parents

to explain what went wrong.

There were 11 teachers at Okawa
school when the tsunami hit.

One survived: Junji Endo

As the crisis at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant wore on,

children from the exclusion zone

were left wondering
when, if ever,

they'd be able to return home.

8 year old Kosei was evacuated
to his grandmothers house

in Minamisoma, the town
next to the exclusion zone.

The house is close
to Fukushima hills,

where radiation is high.

PIANO PLAYING

To a ten year old from a small
town in the exclusion zone,

the emergency housing
camps are an alien world.

7 year old Mutsumi

shares a two room housing
unit with her sisters

Megumi and Manami.

A hundred miles
north of Fukushima,

Naomi's search for her
daughter has ended

six months after the tsunami.

MACHINEARY SOUNDS

Since the accident evacuees from
the Fukushima exclusion zone

have been granted two brief
visits to their homes

Visits are strictly
limited to four hours.

Evacuees must enter and
exit the exclusion zone

through a special facility.

Cars and belongings are screened
for radiation when they return.

In Minamisoma, the
city next to the

exclusion zone,
school playgrounds

are being decontaminated by
removing two inches of topsoil

and replacing it
with clean sand.

The radioactive topsoil
is then burried

in shallow pits, under
the playground.

No one knows when or if
radiation will cause

physical illness in the
children of Fukushima.

But the psychological
impact of the

disaster is being felt already.

Nine months after the
tsunami, the Fukushima

Daiichi nuclear plant
was finally shut down.

But the 80,000 people from
the nuclear exclusion

zone are still waiting for
permission to go home

SINGING

SINGING

SEABIRDS/MUSIC/HEAVY MACHINERY

MUSIC

MUSICAL CRESCENDO