Japanese flee Fukushima nuke disaster to faraway Okinawa, plan class-action against radiation

In this photo released by Minako Kubota, Kubota chats with her two-year-old son in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. Okinawa is about as far away as one can get from Fukushima without leaving Japan, and that is why Kubota is here. Petrified of the radiation spewing from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant that went into multiple meltdowns last year, Kubota grabbed her children, left her skeptical husband and moved to the small southwestern island. More than a thousand people from the disaster zone have done the same thing. “I thought I would lose my mind,” Kubota told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I felt I would have no answer for my children if, after they grew up, they ever asked me, "Mama, why didn’t you leave?" (AP Photo/Courtesy of Minako Kubota) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this March 15, 2011 file photo, a child is screened for radiation exposure at a testing center in Koriyama city, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, after a nuclear power plant on the coast of the prefecture was damaged by March 11 earthquake. Experts and the government say there have been no visible health effects from the radioactive contamination from Fukushima Dai-ichi so far. But they also warn that even low-dose radiation carries some risk of cancer and other diseases, and exposure should be avoided as much as possible, especially the intake of contaminated food and water. Such risks are several times higher for children and even higher for fetuses, and may not appear for years. Okinawa has welcomed the people from Fukushima and other northeastern prefectures (states) affected by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that set off the nuclear disaster. (AP Photo/Wally Santana,File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this March 16, 2011 file photo, a woman holds her child at a shelter after being evacuated from areas around the Fukushima nuclear facilities damaged by last week's major earthquake and following tsunami in Fukushima city, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. Experts and the government say there have been no visible health effects from the radioactive contamination from Fukushima Dai-ichi so far. But they also warn that even low-dose radiation carries some risk of cancer and other diseases, and exposure should be avoided as much as possible, especially the intake of contaminated food and water. Such risks are several times higher for children and even higher for fetuses, and may not appear for years. Okinawa has welcomed the people from Fukushima and other northeastern prefectures (states) affected by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that set off the nuclear disaster. (AP Photo/Wally Santana, File) (The Associated Press)