Farmers Forced to Shut Down Business Due to Radiation Fear

 Here is an story about one Japanese worker at a chicken farm. I found a news article online.

 Approximately 100 thousand hens are still alive and possibly laying eggs. A 55-year-old former worker of the chicken farm in Tamura city, located near Fukushima Daiichi power plant, where the nuclear explosion took place in the aftermath of the earthquake on March 11. Due to the people's increasing concern for radiation affected food, the eggs from the farm were no longer making their ways to people's tables. The farms was forced to shut down a few days later.
" I feel bad, but there is nothing we can do other than leaving them to dead. We want to transport them, but there is no gasoline," the worker said.

   Even after the evacuation notice,his "work comes first" motto kept him home. Although many of the nearby farms had substantial loss from the quake, his farm was not deeply affected. "The orders for eggs were increasing, (than before the quake)" he said.

   However, as the news reported the severity of the nuclear explosion, the orders for eggs ceased. He showed up at work and threw away the eggs with tears in his eyes. Otherwise, "Hens would remember to eat the eggs," he said. he also kept practicing the janitorial work to prevent the hens from acquiring the bird flu.

 Soon after, the farm was forced to shut down. The factory that produced the feed for the hens was impacted by the Tsunami. "There was not even one broken dish inside," he said with sorrow. He is not at the evacuation site.
   Dirty dishes lay in the kitchen inside his home. He doesn't even have energy to clean them. "When can I go back home? Will I ever be able to?" he asks himself.
"After the earthquake, the first thing that I worried about was the nuclear pollution and that is still all I worry about," he said with anger and frustration.


The original article, which is pasted below, can be found at http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/110322/fks11032216010016-n1.htm

Translation by Noriko Okada

約１０万羽のニワトリはまだ生きて、卵を産み続けているだろう。事故があった福島第１原発に近い、福島県田村市の養鶏場で働いていた男性（５５）は思い浮かべる。風評被害で卵は売れなくなり、養鶏場は数日前に閉鎖した。「かわいそうだけど放置して死なせるしかない。運び出そうにもガソリンはない」と話す。

　２１日午後。第１原発から３０キロ圏内の屋内退避区域にある自宅の様子を見に、避難先から戻った男性は息を潜めた。人影の消えた山あいの集落を、警察官が巡回する。明かりが外に漏れないように雨戸を閉めた。まだ屋内退避の指示すら出ていなかった１２日に、市の職員から避難するよう促されていた。

　「まるで、昔映画で見た『逃亡者』みたい。悪いことをしたわけでもないのに」。日が暮れると、お年寄りがいる数軒の家だけ、ぽつり、ぽつりと明かりが見えた。

　１２日の避難催促に、男性は「仕事が第一」と自宅に残った。勤め先の養鶏場は震災に遭っても鶏舎や水道などに問題はなく、他の養鶏場の設備に被害が出た分「卵の注文は増えていた」という。

　ところが原発事故の深刻さが伝えられるにつれ、卵が売れなくなった。男性は毎日出勤し、卵を集めて泣きながら捨てた。そうしないと「ニワトリが卵を食べることを覚えてしまうから」。鳥インフルエンザ対策のため、鶏舎の清掃も続けた。

　津波で被災した飼料工場から餌が届かなくなり、やむなく閉鎖が決まった。「養鶏場の中は茶わん一つ割れていなかったのに」。後ろ髪を引かれながら、家族とともに郡山市の避難所に移った。

　自宅の台所は食器が散乱したままだ。片付ける気力もない。いつ戻れるのか。一生戻れないのか。「地震が起きて、最初に心配したのは原発。原発だけなんですよ、問題は」。悔しさと怒りを絞り出した。