Minamisoma, Fukushima Pref. ¨C For Katsunobu Sakurai, the former mayor of Minamisoma, a city along the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, there is no way releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant would help the lives of local residents.

Discharging treated water from the plant only communicates a drive to promote and sustain nuclear power and profit, Sakurai said, as local fishers and farmers battle further reputational damage from the water release.

¡°It¡¯s strange that the government can arbitrarily decide the lives of citizens,¡± Sakurai said in an interview. ¡°Especially considering that the power company caused the problem, the way to take responsibility should be in a manner that satisfies the citizens.

¡°Not only are fisheries against it, but there are also a considerable number of people opposing it and the sentiment exists both domestically and internationally,¡± he said. ¡°So I can¡¯t agree at all with the notion of releasing (radioactive water) twice a year under the guise of recovery.¡±

Minamisoma is just about 30 kilometers away from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and was one of the neighboring towns heavily impacted by evacuation orders and reputational damage following the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster in 2011.

Sakurai was on the front line as the mayor of Minamisoma, trying his best to figure out what to do as the city and its neighboring towns and villages were damaged from the tsunami and the radioactive fallout from the plant.

¡°It was like a dream. It was just entirely nothing I¡¯d ever experienced, so it felt detached from reality,¡± he said. ¡°We experienced something no one in Japan had ever experienced.¡±

Sakurai became mayor in 2010 just before the disaster took place and served throughout the cleanup. He gained global fame ¡ª including a nomination to the 2011 Time 100 list ¡ª for a video posted on YouTube in which he criticized the government¡¯s response to the nuclear crisis and begged them to support isolated Minamisoma residents whose daily necessities were dwindling due to a stay-at-home order.

Sakurai is now a member of the Minamisoma city council, and continues to advocate for his city which still hasn¡¯t recovered its pre-disaster size of over 70,000 people. Today, there are around 57,000 people in the city, with around 3,000 people still displaced outside of the town.

Fukushima lost over 18,000 people following the disaster, and Minamisoma itself lost nearly 600 people at the time. In almost every public talk about his city¡¯s recovery, Sakurai honors its hundreds of victims.

Ahead of Thursday¡¯s water discharge, Sakurai looked somber as he spoke about the government¡¯s decision and what lies ahead for Minamisoma and Fukushima as a whole, which has become known...