Midori Watanabe, 18, on her life since the disaster.

• Position: VOICES

When I left my house in Fukushima on March 11 last year to take the 60-mile train ride to my high school in Sendai, I had no idea what lay in store for my hometown and my country.

Just a few hours later, I was sitting in English class watching The Devil Wears Prada when everything started to shake violently. I expected the earthquake to end quickly, like others I'd experienced, but this one felt like it would go on forever. I tried texting my parents and my older sister in Fukushima, but I couldn't get through. I remember how frightened I was from the relentless aftershocks, the electrical blackout, and from seeing a teacher crying.

Lives Turned Upside Down

Some of my classmates lost family members and their homes that day. My life was turned upside down in a different way: The earthquake and the tsunami it triggered caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and my family has been split apart ever since.

Because my parents didn't want me exposed to radiation from the nuclear accident, I moved out of my home and into my high school's dorm. My father's tennis shop began to lose business because people were too afraid to play outdoor sports, and he was forced to take a temporary job in Nara, 300 miles from Fukushima. My sister, who fears for her two young children, now lives in Yamagata, 55 miles from Fukushima.

Only my mother remains in our family home. Because she runs the accounting company my grandfather founded 40 years ago, she feels she cannot leave. But we all worry about her exposure to radiation and think the food supply in Fukushima is unsafe. As a precaution, my mother has been buying all her groceries on the weekends when she visits me or my sister.

The Japanese government and the local power company have recently said that the nuclear accident is under control and that some of the evacuated communities are now safe to live in.

But I and many other Japanese have become skeptical of the government's words. In the days after the...