When the first explosion of the plant occurred following the earthquakes and tsunami, most people, even those who lived near the plant, did not expect such a serious nuclear crisis to happen. They were so poorly prepared for such a crisis that they fell into a panic. The lack of information from the government about the accident spurred the people further. Amid the confusion, most of the residents living within 30 km from the plant were trying to escape from their hometown. Although some people initially had been optimistic and refused to leave, most of them were eventually evacuated in fear of the meltdown and radioactive exposure.

Afterwards, the government gradually lifted the residential restriction and some of the evacuees returned to their hometown. However, even until today, they still have traumatic memories about the explosions and their evacuation, which yielded various symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as hyperarousal and reexperiencing symptoms (Maeda 2012). The people returning to their hometown are still worried that another explosion at the plant might occur again in the near future. Their worries and anxieties are likely to make them emotionally unstable and may disturb the return of the evacuees. Even in the coastal areas that contain low air level of cesium (e.g., Minami-Soma City), many evacuees still hesitate to return to their hometown due to their close proximity to the plant. Their hesitation shows that the posttraumatic responses and the worries of another explosion among the evacuees continue to exist.

Three months after the Fukushima accident, Kyutoku et al. (2012) performed an online survey for the people in the Tohoku disaster area and revealed that the level of PTSD symptoms for the earthquake and tsunami was significantly higher than that of the nuclear accident. However, considering that the people living near the plant also lived in the coastal area affected by the disaster, both the tsunami and the nuclear crisis may have given them more fearful experiences than the people solely living far from the plant. In the study of the initial patients visiting psychiatric clinics in Fukushima Prefecture after the disaster, the patients showing PTSD or adjustment disorder were 13.9 % of the total number (n = 1,321) (Miura et al. 2012). Unfortunately, we are not able to precisely estimate the psychiatric influence of the nuclear crisis because of a lack of control group comparisons between the Fukushima Prefecture patients and other disaster areas. However, it is quite possible that the explosion at the plant gave rise to serious traumatic responses among the people living near the plant.

Many of the residents in Fukushima still have chronic anxieties due to the fear of radioactive contamination. Similar to the Three Mile Island in 1979 and the Chernobyl accident in 1986 (Dew and Bromet 1993; Bromet et al. 2011), it is likely that the anxieties among mothers with young children are the highest. The parents are especially nervous about their children possibly touching or handling something dangerous. However, their concerns and the restrictions on their children’s outdoor activities could actually have a negative influence on their children’s psychological state, as well as their physical development (Save the Children 2012). In a survey of 97 parents visiting a pediatric clinic in Fukushima City 5 months after the disaster, 77.2 % answered that their children became more stressed due to the restrictions on their outdoor activities. 85.1 % also answered that they, if possible, hoped to move to a less affected area (Kitajo 2011).

In addition, many of the parents who stayed behind in Fukushima have experienced guilt for their children and have expressed their fear of being accused of allowing their children to continue to be exposed to radiation by staying in Fukushima (Save the Children 2012). Conversely, the parents who managed to relocate to other areas also had guilt due to the fact that they felt that by escaping their hometown, they abandoned their friends and their neighbors.

It is important to note that the anxieties and guilt from the parents, especially the mothers, are likely to lead to their children’s instability. The survey of the pediatric clinic described above (Kitajo 2011) also showed that compared with those before the disaster, the children in Fukushima city tended to be more irritable, more easily offended, more apathetic, and more obsessive. While interacting with their children, their mothers also tended to become more anxious. Furthermore, the mothers’ anxieties might elicit negative reactions in their children again, creating a vicious circle. As Raphael (1986) described in her book, these strong interactions between parents and their children are quite common in disasters. Unfortunately, many of the parents and their children in Fukushima are facing these negative intra-familial interactions, such as distress towards other family members.

In Fukushima, there are still vast areas where people are in danger of radioactive contamination as well as danger from the effects of the tsunami. Over 100,000 people have been evacuated, and many have lost their homes, their jobs, family members, or their sense of community. The elderly people are especially likely to have many difficulties in their readjustment due to the difficulty in changing their jobs and adapting themselves to new circumstances.

Given these losses, we should note that their losses brought by the nuclear crisis are very differently ambiguous from those of the tsunami. Though many houses where the evacuees lived before the disaster are not damaged in appearance, many evacuees are still not allowed to stay or live there by the government’s order. Even after the government lifted the restrictions, many evacuees are still hesitant about returning to their homes for several reasons, such as the fear of insufficient decontamination, the difficulty in finding employment, or simply due to uncertainty. On the other hand, the tsunami survivors, despite their great and apparent loss, seemed to have overcome their traumatic experiences faster than the people affected by the accident.

The Fukushima evacuees continue to face a dilemma; they can continue waiting for their hometown to someday become habitable again, but it is unknown when such a situation will occur. Also, this uncertainty has led to difficulties in both compensations and the welfare service. Similar to having a missing loved one (Boss 1999), such ambiguous loss delays the recovery process of the evacuees and may lead to continuing psychiatric problems for the people of Fukushima. In particular, we should pay attention to occurrence of depression or suicide. For example, in Fukushima Prefecture, 32.4 % of the new outpatients having depression or PTSD answered that their symptoms are related to the nuclear accident (Miura et al. 2012). In regard to suicide, several suicidal cases closely related to the nuclear crisis were reported by media, but we have not been able to accurately report on all of these situations.

In Fukushima, many people were relocated from the affected area both voluntarily and involuntarily. Multiple factors, such as the fear of radioactive exposure, along with residential restrictions, compensations, employment, and/or other personal reasons, divided the residents into two groups: those who decided to relocate and those who did not. Unfortunately, the dissonance between these two groups often arose, which broke the bonds between the original residents.