A Japanese man has spent the last 10 years of his life helping and caring for cats left homeless by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which struck Japan a decade ago.
Sakae Kato, 57, has spent his time in dangerous circumstances, caring for the cats that were abandoned as people fled the area to escape the huge radiation leak. He is currently looking after 41 cats in total, but he has cared for hundreds over the years since the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. He also feeds the wild boar that now run freely through Fukushima.
A decade ago, Sakae Kato stayed behind to rescue cats abandoned by neighbors who fled the radiation clouds belching from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant.
He won’t leave https://t.co/E4LxHvHmWP 1/7 pic.twitter.com/ZxUsIFIysQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 4, 2021
Prior to the disaster, Kato had run a construction business in the Fukushima area, where his family has lived for generations. Kato has said that he felt he had to stay behind to help the animals after finding so many dead following the disaster.
‘I want to make sure I am here to take care of the last one,’ Kato said from his home in the contaminated quarantine zone.
He leaves food for feral cats in a storage shed he heats with a paraffin stove 3/7 pic.twitter.com/djcGoQFR4p
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 4, 2021
The 57-year-old, a small construction business owner in his former life, says his decision to stay as 160,000 other people evacuated the area was spurred in part by the shock of finding dead pets in abandoned houses he helped demolish 5/7 pic.twitter.com/QvDprLmmMH
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 4, 2021
He currently has no running water in a quarantined area, where he lives with the few other remaining residents, and spends every day collecting water, which he also leaves out for the cats. He also leaves out food, brought from areas without high levels of radiation poisoning. On top of this, he has also created a heated shed where the cast can rest in winter-time when temperatures plummet to below zero.
He says that he spends as much as $7,000 a month feeding the animals, none of whom now have owners, and some of whom have been born since the disaster.
Read more on the man who saves forgotten cats in Fukushima’s nuclear zone https://t.co/E4LxHvHmWP
By 📷 Kim Kyung-Hoon and ✍️ @kellyJapan 7/7
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 4, 2021
Kato first hit headlines after he illegally freed a wild boar that had been caught in a trap by the Japanese authorities. He is still to go to court in relation to the incident and was briefly detained.
Fukushima was one of the worst nuclear disasters that have ever occurred. The nuclear facility at Fukushima split open after a huge tsunami hit the coast, causing unbelievable destruction. The nuclear core melted, and experts were required to shut it down slowly over time. Despite this, radiation leaked into the nearby area and into the sea. Due to this, the area is now regarded as too dangerous to live in, and many fear that the radiation has also seriously poisoned the surrounding ocean environment.