While the news has been up and down almost daily regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the evacuees have faced ongoing spiritual and mental challenges.
From Roseline Y, who works in the mental care area with Japanese: I received some information about the shelters at Tochigi, which seems to had received the evacuees who had been staying within 30kms from the Fukushima nuclear plant. Initially, they thought they were away just for a while because of the tsunami. But now, they can never go back because of the high radiation, even though their homes were not destroyed. There is a lot of hopelessness, and probably resentment too. Scot says he heard many people, especially the elderly had died not because of sickness, but they had given up. They had left with only what they were wearing. The Fukushima evacuees are probably not getting as much attention in comparison to Miyagi, while they suffer the same lost. The spiritual atmosphere in Fukushima will be a totally different scene. I will be going up to the area with the field leaders hopefully by sometime early this week. Keep us in prayers!