On march 11, 2011, at 2 45 pm, a cataclysmic earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, severely damaging its safety and cooling systems. Within a few days, the core of nuclear power plants numbers 1,2 and 3 began to melt, releasing massive amounts of radionuclides into the air and ocean. The Tepco Technicians are fighting against the “monster” to save their country and the world, knowing very well that they will soon die from massive radiation exposure.

This terrifying and horrific story is still ongoing and we do not yet fully know and are only beginning to tabulate, the ultimate consequences of the recent Japanese nuclear accident.

Following the catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi, the Japanese government created a 20 km evacuation zone around the plant and on April announced the creation of a "No-Go Zone” off-limits to everyone, especially journalists and photographers. From the first days of July, 2011 I was able to enter the "No-Go Zone" multiple times to document the situation together with my friend Pio d’Emilia, correspondent of Sky TG 24. Inside the exclusion zone (and also outside till 100 km from the nuclear power plant) the contamination has a “leopard skin” diffusion. 300 meters from the exploded reactor of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant the Geiger counter showed 2000 times the normal level.

Empty cities await us, with only a few abandoned dogs wandering, forlornly, on the streets. At the time of the evacuation all animals were abandoned. Occasionally one encountered cows enjoying total if ephemeral freedom after wandering away from their farms. But most grotesque and haunting of all are the decomposing carcasses of hundreds of cows and other farm animals left penned and unattended by their former owners. Each night, several animal activists illegally entered the Exclusion Zone to rescue pets and other domestic animals.

Most of the houses are locked, some convenience stores, still full of goods, have been looted, and hospitals have been ransacked for drugs and ATMs smashed and emptied. Robbers began preying on victims inside the No-Go Zone, spreading radioactivity all over Japan. Many people, most of them elderly, are still hiding out inside the zone, some of them with no visible protection whatsoever. The most common refrain I heard was: “Why should we bother leaving? We are old, there is no way that such radiation exposure could do us any harm. If I have to die, let me die on my own futon.”

Once a month residents were permitted to re-enter their houses in order to rescue personal belongings. They wander about in their houses, utterly dazed, utterly bereft, clinging to fragments oblivious to the danger of radioactivity.

Despite the massive contamination, life still goes on inside the “No-Go Zone” and many stories of life and death are still inside…