The residents of Okuma were among more than 150,000 people who were forced to flee their homes after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As one of the wrecked plant’s two host towns, Okuma, was abandoned for eight years before authorities declared that radiation levels had fallen to safe levels, allowing residents to return. Even now, 60% of Okuma remains off-limits, and only a tiny fraction of the pre-disaster population of 11,500 has returned since their former neighbourhoods were given the all clear in April. A month later, Okuma’s mayor, Toshitsuna Watanabe, and his colleagues returned to work at a new town hall. In the first of a three-part diary for the Guardian, Watanabe describes his feelings when, after years of displacement, he and other residents ended their nuclear exile.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Okuma town hall in the foreground, with the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Pacific ocean in the distance. Photograph: Okuma town office

Toshitsuna Watanabe, mayor of Okuma

“I’m finally home” – these are the first words I uttered when I returned to Okuma, my hometown. It was part of a speech I gave to guests at a ceremony to mark the opening of our new town hall. We had been forced to stay away from our home for eight years. I can’t begin to describe how much I had wanted to say those words, and in that place. That said, I was so nervous that I wondered if I would be able to finish my speech.

Not many people have heard of Okuma, but I am sure that they have heard of Fukushima. Eight years ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami caused widespread damage along Fukushima’s coast and triggered a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Okuma is located on the Pacific coast, right next to reactors Nos. 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi. The government ordered our entire town to evacuate because of the risk posed by radioactive material spread by the triple meltdown. The evacuation order stayed in place until 9 April this year. The following day, it was lifted in some areas of the town, allowing us to prepare to open our town hall. The lifting of the evacuation order covered the south-western districts of Ogawara and Chuyashiki, which are furthest from the nuclear plant. Together they account for about 40% of the town. We decided to focus our regeneration plans and build our new town hall in Ogawara, because its previous location was still off-limits. We finally went back to work in May.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe gets back to work at Okuma’s new town hall. Photograph: Okuma town office

Until then we had had to work out of a temporary town hall in Aizuwakamatsu, a city 100km to the west. Now that we are back home, we can all work under the same roof, united in our determination to rebuild Okuma.

I’m sometimes puzzled when I look out of the window of my new office and see completely different scenery, but that hasn’t dampened the feeling that I have come home – that I’m exactly where I should be.

But not all of the residents agree with what we’re doing. Even though the two reopened districts cover 40% of the town, only 3.5% of residents lived there before the disaster. The districts where most of Okuma’s people lived before the accident are still classified as “difficult to return to”, and there are strict limits on temporary visits by residents. Until those areas are also reopened, we can’t claim that our town has fully recovered. On top of this, residents have been physically separated from their homes for the past eight years. Many of them have chosen to live in places like Iwaki, Koriyama and Aizuwakamatsu, all in Fukushima prefecture. Unlike Okuma, which is surrounded by mountains and the sea, these places have big populations, shops, medical facilities and a good transport infrastructure. I can’t criticise people for not wanting to return to the town after all these years.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abandoned cars are covered by weeds in Okuma in the wake of the triple disaster Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

Rebuilding Okuma and recovering from the nuclear accident will require an enormous amount of time and money. Those residents who have decided to return are small in number, and they are getting old. In June, we will have completed construction of 50 houses owned by the town government, but the average age of the people who’ll live in them is over 65. To begin with, about 100 people will live in Okuma, including staff at the town office and people who have recently moved back into their own homes.

In some ways it feels like we have made a fresh start, but a tough reality lies ahead. That said, we made a strong commitment never to give up on rebuilding Okuma. Last summer we were able to come back long enough to have a barbecue and Bon Odori festival, in which we honour our ancestors, at the town’s main shrine, near the house where I grew up. Just dancing in a circle with some of my neighbours brought memories of my childhood flooding back. If just one person had said they wanted to return, we would have worked hard to make that happen. People have different reasons for coming back, but I was struck by one elderly resident who told me: “I just want to live out my days and die in my hometown.”