Japan: Fukushima worker devotes life to abandoned pets after nuclear disaster

Not far from the Fukushima-nuclear-disaster" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="7897" data-entity-type="event">Fukushima nuclear disaster site, former plant worker Toru Akama tends to dozens of pets abandoned after the catastrophe 15 years ago, work he sees as part of his quest for redemption.Miaows and barks break the silence of the countryside, once an evacuation zone, as the 63-year-old brings food to the animals left behind when their owners fled the triple disaster of March 11, 2011: earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.“It’s because of this plant, where we worked for years, that these animals ended up like this,” Akama said at his home in northern Japan, surrounded by cats.“They should have been able to go on living their lives as pets, but because of this accident they were abandoned.Toru Akama feeds cats at his animal shelter. He currently has 47 felines. Photo: AFP“I felt it was my duty to protect them,” he said.