This story first appeared on the Guardian website.
It's little wonder that Chieko Sasaki is gripping two bottles of sake like her life depends on it.
For weeks after the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last March, Sasaki believed her brewing business had met the same fate as her hometown, Iitate.
The farming village lies just outside the 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone surrounding the plant, but was evacuated two months after the accident after independent monitors discovered dangerously high levels of radiation there.
Sasaki, along with 7,000 Iitate residents, left the home she shared with her husband, son and grandson, and said a quiet farewell to her brewery, restaurant and the fields where she once grew organic rice and vegetables.
"When I think about my old house, I get a headache and can't sleep," she said. "I took out millions of yen in loans to build my old brewery and restaurant, and I was on the verge of paying them off when the accident happened.
"Then I had to borrow more money to open this place. Tokyo Electric Power [the operator of the plant] has paid me some compensation, but it's a drop in the ocean."
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Blue Marble is the Mother Jones Environment Blog.
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