picture of the day

Going nowhere

19 Comments

The rusty train tracks of the Joban line are covered with weeds near Tatsuta Station in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture. The tracks were wrecked by the March 11, 2011 tsunami, and have not been repaired because the residents of Naraha had to be evacuated due to the nuclear disaster.

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19 Comments
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If you look long enough at that image you will start to get an eerie feeling that something creepy might just lie beyond those weeds... "In a world where..."

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Disillusioned — "NUCLEAR POWER DID THIS!"

No, that is not true. A massive earthquake, followed by an amazingly strong tsunami, abetted by chronically short-sighted, lazy and incompetent TEPCO management did this. What you are saying is like the old saw, "It was a computer mistake." No, computers don't make mistakes -- but humans (especially obtuse company directors) definitely do.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Thanks. A picture that could have thousands of possible responses to 'write a caption for this'.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Utrack: Radioactive track to nowhere. And yet the population of Naraha are told to return to their homes..

They just have to drive themselves. TEPCO execs not going to do it.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@Disillusioned

I have to agree with PSandoz. It took a once-in-800-years event to trigger the Fukushima meltdown, and even then that even would not have happened had TEPCO been using more modern reactor designs instead of something 40+ years old and had better safety protocols in place. It took a lot of bad decisions and corner-cutting to make this disaster happen.

Despite all of this, how many people have actually been sickened or died from Fukushima? The number is vanishingly low. Meanwhile, particulate pollution from the extra fossil fuels burned after Japan's nuclear plants were shut down have caused thousands of extra cases of asthma, cancer, and other health problems. You can complain about the risks of nuclear power, but when we honestly compare deaths worldwide related to nuclear power and to fossil fuels over the past 50 or 60 years, nuclear power has saved millions of lives globally since its inception.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

@noriyosan73,

Why aren't the rails recycled and a bike/motorbike/pedestrian way put in its place?

Well, actually, the answer is pretty straightforward.

First, despite the impression given by the picture, the section of the Joban line involved has not officially been abandoned or decommissioned. This may happen in the future, depending on the circumstances regarding the exclusion zone, but for now JR East has not announced any decision to permanently close this section of the line.

Second, even it it did do so, obviously the entry restrictions related to the exclusion zone would make the idea of putting some sort of recreational path in its place a little problematic.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This picture reminds me of my life.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I have a caption for it!

NUCLEAR POWER DID THIS!

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Radioactive track to nowhere. And yet the population of Naraha are told to return to their homes..

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Peace Out,

Not sure when you rode it and where you rode it. I rode it back in the day when it was still part of JNR. Did the run from Tsuchiura to Ueno twice a week. A whole different feel back then. Of course, I was still a kid then. But I remember many a Friday evening riding it back to Tsuchiura from Ueno and many a salaryman upchucking their One Cups between the cars for the whole hour ride.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Completely agree, @PTownsend. A really good picture and one that could symbolize so many things.

Ahh, the Joban-sen. I remember travelling the line up to Sendai a couple of times in my youth. Wonder if they will ever restore the line fully in order to make this trip possible once again....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

PSandoz - So, you are saying that this was not the result of nuclear power, but it is the result of TEPCO who runs the nuclear power plant that created this dead-zone? That's absurd! It's like saying, it wasn't the hot water that burned me, it was just the heat.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I used to refer to it as the "Jodan" line. The few times I used it, it took so long to get anywhere, I made a mental not to use some other form of transportation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Mickeylikesit - Once in 800 years? Really? Just because the last major sismic event was more than half a millenium ago does not mean the same thing can't happen again tomorrow! The fact that the 2013 quake was so strong and so devastating just proves how wrong they are to have 52 reactors on such an unstable chain of islands. There is a fine line between fate and inevitability! Another major earthquake and meltdown are inevitable!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

sad

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It doesn't look like a major line. From the looks of it, it wasn't even electrified.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

KnowBetter: If you look long enough at that image you will start to get an eerie feeling that something creepy might just lie beyond those weeds... "In a world where..."

The hills have eyes.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Why aren't the rails recycled and a bike/motorbike/pedestrian way put in its place?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Here's a caption for you: Like the future of Japan

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

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