ABSTRACT
The unprecedented scale of the nuclear accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has forced victims into a life of evacuation with no end in sight. The prolonged evacuation has led to a shift in general public sentiment, and the particular sentiment of evacuee-receiving communities, from warm sympathy to victim-blaming, resulting in mounting stress for the evacuees. In addition, with anxiety over the crippled reactors still unresolved, an increasing number of people have given up on returning to their former homes—a fact clearly indicative of a major change in the attitudes of victims. However, even five years after the disaster, studies exploring the conditions, problems, and changes facing disaster victims remain far from adequate.
