WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.158 --> 00:00:13.062 Well, the earthquake and tsunami weren't the end of that story. That huge wave crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crippling the facility and sending radioactive material into the water and into the air. 2 00:00:13.096 --> 00:00:19.970 Well, since then, the company that owns that facility has been working around the clock to get it up and running again. 3 00:00:20.015 --> 00:00:26.081 Just who are the individuals risking their health and their lives to clean it up. 4 00:00:26.123 --> 00:00:33.041 Well, Kyung Lah kicks us off tonight, telling us about one man who went undercover to find out. 5 00:00:36.672 --> 00:00:43.967 Inside a nuclear disaster, they are the nameless men cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. 6 00:00:44.295 --> 00:00:53.583 Author Tomohiko Suzuki decided to tell their stories by disguising himself as a fellow contract laborer. He's looking into a small video camera... 7 00:00:53.763 --> 00:00:54.564 This is the lens? 8 00:00:54.683 --> 00:01:00.865 ...disguised as a wristwatch. For six weeks, he captured images of daily life as a day hire 9 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:05.974 -- the blown nuclear reactors, driving past tanks holding contaminated water -- 10 00:01:06.333 --> 00:01:10.333 documenting what he saw and the workers he met in a recently published book. 11 00:01:10.534 --> 00:01:12.356 What is the primary message of your book? 12 00:01:14.172 --> 00:01:15.896 "Stop lying," he says. 13 00:01:16.084 --> 00:01:18.272 What is this lie that you're talking about? 14 00:01:19.205 --> 00:01:23.852 "There's no way you won't be radioactively contaminated if you work at the nuclear plant," Suzuki says. 15 00:01:24.231 --> 00:01:32.192 He says, despite disposable protective gear, daily decontamination and controls to check radiation, workers will be exposed to radiation. 16 00:01:32.941 --> 00:01:38.210 The Tokyo Electric Company, or TEPCO, tells CNN it has nothing to say about Suzuki's book, 17 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:46.344 but the company maintains worker safety is a high priority, and protection from radiation exposure has improved since the early days of the disaster. 18 00:01:46.691 --> 00:01:55.059 But Suzuki disagrees and says there's a reason why the men he met at Fukushima are average people, not nuclear engineers. 19 00:01:56.916 --> 00:01:59.150 "The world is survival of the fittest," he says. 20 00:01:59.183 --> 00:02:06.179 "There are only weak people working at the plant, people who know nothing. There are no rich or politically powerful people working there." 21 00:02:06.947 --> 00:02:14.285 TEPCO says 3,000 workers are at the plant on average every day; 75 percent of the workers are contracted hires. 22 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:18.371 We know little else about the workers cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear plant. 23 00:02:18.668 --> 00:02:22.950 Many we've tried to interview say that they're worried they'll lose their jobs if they talk. 24 00:02:23.284 --> 00:02:31.273 Suzuki says he's heard that again and again, a fear that if the workers tell the public what it's like to work inside the plant, they'll be fired. 25 00:02:32.079 --> 00:02:38.765 CNN was part of a recent media tour of the Fukushima nuclear plant, where TEPCO hand-selected workers for reporters to interview. 26 00:02:38.992 --> 00:02:42.763 Satoshi Tarumi is a contracted Toshiba worker for the nuclear plant. 27 00:02:42.953 --> 00:02:46.194 You're a young man. You're 33 years old. Why do you continue to work here? 28 00:02:47.442 --> 00:02:52.027 "This accident happened at my plant," he says. "It's my mission to keep working here." 29 00:02:52.424 --> 00:02:58.252 That sort of hero narrative is what TEPCO wants the public to hear, says Suzuki, not the real story. 30 00:02:58.363 --> 00:02:59.727 Why are people working there? 31 00:03:01.496 --> 00:03:02.958 "For the money," he says. 32 00:03:03.079 --> 00:03:11.167 "They're not worried about the health risk decades down the line. Today's bread, tomorrow's meal, rent for next month; that's what they're worried about." 33 00:03:11.544 --> 00:03:18.083 "They," he says, "are the ones cleaning up the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years."