Now Postponed, The Olympic Torch Relay Was To Bring Hope To Ravaged Fukushima
The torch relay was supposed to start on Thursday in the Japanese prefecture hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A torch runner recalls the disaster that took his family.
Takayuki Ueno looks out over an empty field along the coast in Fukushima, Japan, and points toward the ocean.
"There used to be houses here, and trees," he says, and then points in another direction. "And over there, too."
The wind whips across the open space. A small, new graveyard sits in an adjacent plot. Those houses were where his neighbors once lived.
This region was devastated nine years ago when the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history. The giant wave washed away nearly 20,000 people, including thousands in Fukushima. right down the coast, causing a partial meltdown that sent plumes of radioactive particles for miles. The area has been trying to rebuild ever since.
