Nuclear-ravaged Fukushima to get 20,000 cherry trees
Purchase this article for republication
Buy SPH photos
Fukushima residents and volunteers plant cherry tree saplings along the side of the route six road in Minamisoma city in Fukushima prefecture, 15km north of stricken Tepco's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Feb 23, 2013. A project to plant 190km of Japan's tsunami-hit coast with cherry trees has begun, with organisers saying they want something to welcome nuclear evacuees in three decades' time. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO (AFP) - A project to plant 190 kilometres of Japan's tsunami-hit coast with cherry trees has begun, with organisers saying they want something to welcome nuclear evacuees in three decades' time.
Residents, volunteers and those who fled the atomic disaster are set to plant 20,000 cherry tree saplings in Fukushima's coastal Hamadori region over the next 10 years, Jiji Press said.
"Everyone may come back to Fukushima 30 years from now," project leader Yumiko Nishimoto, 59, told Jiji.
"We want to leave local communities in a state our children can be proud of."
