Photo: Mustafa Ezz | Pexels
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. I want to make sure I am here to take care of the last one, he said from his home in the contaminated quarantine zone. He is looking after 41 cats and has buried another 23. Kato says that 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. The cats also gave him a reason to stay on land that has been owned by his family for three generations. I don't want to leave. I like living in these mountains, Kato said.
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