After bringing the peaks of Mount Everest to armchair travelers via Google Street View, Google has brought the no-entry nuclear zone of Fukushima for the world. The web giant has brought a ghost town inside Fukushima nuclear zone, named Namie-machi, to Google Maps.
Namie-machi, once a small lively town, is located near the Fukushima nuclear plant. After the 2011 disaster, when the Fukushima nuclear plant was severely damaged by the tsunami that hit Japan, the whole town became a radioactive zone because the leaks from the nuclear plant. All of the town’s 21,000 residents had to leave.
Two years have passed, but the area is still not free of radioactivity; hence, a no-entry zone. But, the ex-residents can now see the state of their town through Google’s eyes. The town’s mayor Tamotsu Baba has worked closely with Google to bring the town to Street View.
“Many of the displaced townspeople have asked to see the current state of their city, and there are surely many people around the world who want a better sense of how the nuclear incident affected surrounding communities,” Babu wrote in a blog post.
The Street View imagery of Namie-machi can be accessed through Google Maps, or through a website created by Google named Memories for the Future.
“With the lingering nuclear hazard, we have only been able to do cursory work for two whole years. We would greatly appreciate it if you viewed this Street View imagery to understand the current state of Namie-machi and the tremendous gravity of the situation,” Baba wrote.
Source: CNET
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