The operation of trains running from Tomioka to Namie stations in Fukushima Prefecture on the JR Joban Line, which had been suspended due to the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake, resumed on Saturday. This marks the first time in nine years that all stations along the line have been operational.
The first train arrived at 5:56 a.m. on Saturday at Futaba Station in the town of Futaba, for which the evacuation order placed on the area after the disasters was partially lifted on March 4.
Employees of the town government waved small flags and greeted the arriving passengers. Among the arrivals was Mai Iwasaki, 36, a company employee in Tokyo who remembered experiencing the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school.
"I wanted to visit and see the reconstruction for myself as someone who experienced a similar disaster," Iwasaki said. "From the window of the train you could see the desolated area classified as difficult to return to, but there were also people waving flags. It was so moving."
With this line resuming operation, service has been restored on all JR lines affected by the earthquake or the incident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
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