“We will create a 12-hectare forest here. I hope people in Iwaki (a city in Fukushima Prefecture) and the Greater Tokyo Area will help us plant trees and create the forest,” said Masahito Nemoto in spring in 2014, after losing his house and agricultural fields in the tsunami.
Along the coastline of Hirono Town in Fukushima Prefecture, a 50-meter wide disaster prevention green area with a total length of about 2 kilometers is steadily being developed. It will be almost fully completed by the end of this (2015) fiscal year and several types of trees, such as Japanese black pines, Machilus thunbergii, and tangerine (designated town tree), will be planted starting in March 2016.
In the meantime, Fukushima Prefecture’s Tomioka Public Works and Construction Office has set up a group called Hirono Disaster Prevention Green Area Supporters Club, whose members are mainly the town’s residents.
Why has the number of participants remained steady? It may be because they share local residents’ strong feelings toward regenerating their community, their passion that has led to the pioneering efforts in Iwaki, and their vision to encourage people to plant trees in the disaster prevention area, to monitor the growth of the trees, and to create a new hometown together.