The area behind a barrier at the east ward of the Futaba Hospital in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, is overgrown with weeds on Jan. 23. (Taro Kotegawa)
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Despite an unfolding nuclear disaster, nurses at nearby Futaba Hospital continued to work diligently, even when it meant changing patients' diapers and plastic bags for intravenous drips by flashlight and candle light, after the power supply was cut.
While they waited to be rescued, large swathes of Fukushima Prefecture were being enveloped by radioactive substances spewed out of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following a triple meltdown triggered by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.