After the disaster, thousands of people were evacuated with the promise it would only last a few days.
But for many, that exile lasted a lifetime.
Still, hundreds of elderly people decided to return to their contaminated villages.
Gathered around the fire, they told stories, remembered the dead, and kept cultivating their land, defying the invisible threat of radiation.
They were called the “returnees”: men and women who preferred to die at home rather than live far from their roots.