To this day, the plant still leaks toxic, radioactive water and tens of thousands of “nuclear refugees” from nearby towns are still outcasts in their own land.

A vending machine, brought inland by a tsunami, is seen in a abandoned rice field inside the exclusion zone at the coastal area near Minamisoma in Fukushima prefecture Sept. 21, 2013.

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011, the prefecture of Fukushima has entered the global imagination as a dangerous ground zero, home to a nuclear facility worryingly breached during the natural disaster. To this day, the plant still leaks toxic, radioactive water; on Oct. 3, 430 liters (110 gallons) spilled when workers overflowed a storage tank. Tokyo Electric Power Company said the spilled water had radiation readings nearly 6,700 times the legal limit.

Tens of thousands of “nuclear refugees” from nearby towns are still outcasts in their own land. What remains is a place in limbo—houses abandoned, frozen in time, and a community struggling to make do.