he still wonders if some of the victims couldn't have been saved? >> translator: it pains me. when i went back to the town hall,ished have been stronger. if we had gone to search the survivors right away with floodlights instead of the next morning, things would have been different, but we didn't know about the plant then. now we blame the plant, but we should have gone searching that night. that's where i made a mistake.

the day after the accident, officials at the prime minister's office and the locals were stunned. at 3:36 p.m., reactor number 1 exploded. the nurse was at the hospital 4 kilometers away from the plant when it exploded. >> it was a huge boom, i could feel it in my belly. i thought my time had come that what we all feared had happened at the plant. >> takano was outside leading the evacuation.

>> then we look towards it, saw the gray smoke, knew it had blown up. what exactly exploded? the government had no accurate idea of what was happening at the time. >> translator: if the nuclear reactor itself had exploded, that would have been similar to chernobyl, and people could have died from acute radiation poisoning. it's extremely serious that our government was unable to accurately grasp the situation.

>> the government had to reconsider the size of its evacuation zone. how much wider would it have to be? their decision became a further burden on the citizens. the government based it decision on the 30 kilometer zone, that meant the evacuees would jump from 50,000 to 210,000. if they all evacuated at once, it would lead to panic. those near the plant might not be able to get out. >> if we had increased the evacuation zone to 30 kilometers, the number of evacuees would have risen

quickly, and they might have been had to remain in the radius because of evacuation traffic jams. a zone of 20 kilometers meant that the number of evacuees would be 78,000. however, evacuaten an area beyond 10 kilometers had not been anticipated. the prime minister's office ordered the nuclear agency to collect information on areas within 20 kilometers of the plant. the agency was told to find out the town's names and populations.

this is agency's deputy director-general. he did not even have a map of houses beyond 10 kilometers of the plant and was unsure even if they could evacuate the people. >> translator: citying, towns and villages outside the 10-kilometer zone had no evacuation plans, but residents there would have to evacuate. this placed an enormous burden on local governments. pinches the governmentt ahead with complementing the 20-kilometer evacuation zone, despite not knowing how to evacuation the residents. >> reactor number 1 had exploded. so we had to assume that the same thing would happen to reactor number 2 and 3.

we wanted as much space as possible between the people and the plant. we wanted the people to evacuate. >> the evacuation zone increased to 10 kilometers, and then to 20 on the same day. citizens and local governments were unable to adjust in time. futaba kosei hospital was only 4 kilometers from the plant. when the evacuation order came, staff had finally begun evacuating 40 or so cancer patients and bed-ridden elderly people. patients in critical condition were carried out, bundled in sheets.

the patients were flown one after another in a self-defense force helicopter from the field of the high school. but as night fell and visibility dropped, the helicopters stopped coming. >> translator: to be honest, i thought we had been abandoned. some thought we would be left there with nobody to rescue us. >> to escape the radiation, the 25 staff members and patients broke the door of a school building and hid inside. everyone thought they would die.

during the night, one 86-year-old woman took a turn for the worse. oxygen tanks and medicines had been taken away, so there was nothing the staff could do. the woman quietly passed away. >> translator: i'm so frustrated. why was there no alternative? there must have been another way to evacuate more safely and quickly. >> a series of evacuation orders were issued to protect residents from radiation, but a tragedy befell even those who were first to teenage refuge.

they traveled by bus from futaba kosei hospital ahead of nurse and other patients, first transferred to a nursing home 11 kilometers from the nuclear power plant. however, the evacuation zone was immediately increased to 20 kilometers, so they had to move even further. they arrived at a help center outside the 20-kilometer radius to be checked for radiation. the central was crowded with over 800 patients from other hospitals and health care facilities. the bus took a lengthy detour to stay out of evacuation zone around the plant. the 160-kilometer ride took almost six hours.

other hospitals also had to arrange such journeys to transfer their patients. nhk's research has found that at least 68 patients died during the journeys or shortly after evacuating. on march 13th, three days after the nuclear accident, the threat of radiation also affected those who had escaped outside the 20-kilometer evacuation zone. local authorities in fukushima detected high radiation levels of over 30 microsieverts an hour in a city northwest of the nuclear plant. the figure exceeded the annual dose limit in only two days.

8,000 residents from naime town evacuated without knowing this. naime is also northwest of the plant. the shelter was full of evacuees, and many were said to have been outside during the day. >> translator: perhaps we were relieved that we weren't affected by radiation at all. some said we shouldn't worry too much. on march 14th, another explosion hit the nuclear plant. this time it was reactor number 3.

the situation deteriorated, but the town heard nothing about the government. the mayor decided to move further away from the plant. on the morning of march 15th, as he prepared to evacuate, reactor number 4 exploded. the containment vessels of reactor number 2 was also damaged. spewing a significant amount of radiation into the air at the time the government was making its own projections to where the plumes of smoke would go. their data shows that radioactive substances spread

northwest, but the public didn't receive that information, and people in naime were also fleeing the northwest. 7:00 p.m. on march 15th, almost all the residents had evacuated, 100 hours after the nuclear accident. >> translator: i worry about the health of children and young peop people. i am extremely shocked they were exposed to radiation. if the government had used any means possible to contact us we could have done things differently. >> it is almost a year since the nuclear accident in fukushima. although the government has officially announced the crisis

is under control, decommissioning the crippled reactors is expected to take more than 30 years. the 20-kilometer evacuation zone is strictly off-limits. in fukushima, a total of over 150,000 people still live in shelters. >> translator: the crisis deprived many of their homes, jobs and live lihoods. it is our government's responsibility including my leadership for not preventing this.

i am sorry that past nuclear polici policies were in fact inadequate. i would like to once again express my sincere apologies to the nation for failing to take proper steps to ensure nuclear safety. the hospital is 4 kilometers from the nuclear plant. radiation levels are still high in the surruineding area and the hospital has no prospects of reopening. nurse nishiyana evacuated with critically ill patients. he now works at another hospital in fukushima. she knows that returning to

futaba will be impossible. >> translator: it's been quite a long time since the disaster, but as times goes by, i feel more and more miserable and depress depressed now i have a place to live and no serious trouble in my daily life. but as time passes, i recognize the enormous value of what has

been lost. in namie town's ukedo district, rescues operations were called off after the accident. mr. and mrs. sato's son koro was found dead later in the search. in mid-february, the town gave them permission to enter the ukedo district. following the discovery of their son's body, his two children were also found dead. his wife remains missing and has been listed as deceased.

the couple have lost their son, daughter-in-law, and their two grandchildren. now they were finally able to lay flowers for them. >> translator: i never thought the damage was so severe until i came here. we're close to the sea here, and now i can see the plant right over there. it's frustrating. if only there was a nuclear

plant, it's really frustrating. >> many lives were lost in the chaos after the nuclear disaster. the struggle against radiation seems neverending. and surviving victims continue to shoulder the burden of tragic memories.