Naoto Matsumura is no ordinary Japanese farmer. He’s the only one who lives in the ghost city of Tomioka, situated just six miles away fr...
Naoto Matsumura is no ordinary Japanese farmer. He’s the only one who lives in the ghost city of Tomioka, situated just six miles away from the Fukushima-I nuclear power plant.
After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, more than 150,000 people left their homes and moved to safer areas. Following the government order to leave the exclusion zone, Naoto took his parents and left his farm. However, he soon found himself missing his home terribly, and couldn’t stop thinking about all the animals he had left behind. One day, Naoto made a life-changing decision that later turned this man into a true hero. He chose to return to his home in Tomioka to support the abandoned animals in their struggle for life.
We take our hats off to people like Naoto — who, when faced with the decision between doing the easy thing or the right thing, choose the latter.
Known as the guardian of Fukushima’s animals, Naoto Matsumura is the only person who chose to live in the contaminated zone near Fukushima.
He left his home behind right after the disaster, but soon returned to Tomioka to take care of his farm animals.
When he first arrived in his home town after the nuclear accident, he was deeply shocked by how many animals had been left behind.
The authorities in Fukushima prefecture launched a campaign to kill off the surviving animals, but Matsumura stood up to the government and saved his four-legged friends.
In his struggle to help the animals live, Matsumura relies solely on donations from supporters.
He knows that the radiation is harmful to his health, and is slowly killing him, but he just refuses to worry about it.
‘The doctors told me that I wouldn’t get sick for 30 or 40 years. I’ll most likely be dead by then anyway, so I couldn’t care less’, says this selfless and big-hearted man.
Source: http://brightside.me/
