Review Detail

Journey to Tomioka

Middle Grade Fiction 236

Fantastical Look at the 2011 Fukushima Disaster

May 07, 2026 (Updated: June 23, 2026)

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Osamu and his sister, Akiko, are being raised in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster by their grandmother, Bā-chan. It’s been difficult for Osamu, who is not dealing with the death of his parents well, and he befriends yōkai, spirits that no one else can see. When the grandmother passes away, a cousin from the city offers to take the children to live with her, even though her husband isn’t very keen on the idea. As they are preparing for the move, Osamu is adamant that Bā-chan’s ashes be taken to her family farm, but since that is in the restricted zone, it’s not an easy task. The area is still radioactive, and hard to get to. The children are taken into the area to take the ashes to the cemetery, but Osamu runs away deeper into the zone. Akiko goes after her brother, and the two make the perilous journey to the farm, having to evade law enforcement, and endangering themselves with the radiation. They are successful in their mission, but somewhat affected by the radiation. They move to the city with their cousin, and slowly start to make their new life in Tokyo, where Osamu’s spirit friends join him.

Good Points

The Fukushima disaster in 2011 is something I vividly remember, and it’s a little surprising that there haven’t been middle grade books about the event other than
I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 by Lauren Tarshis and the nonfiction books Meltdown by Deirdre Langeland and Meltdown: The Nuclear Disaster in Japan and Our Energy Future… by Alfred B. Bortz. Adding a fantasy element that is culturally connected to the book is interesting, and the yōkai help out Osamu as he works his way through his dangerous and upsetting journey to place his grandmother’s ashes in a location where she would be comfortable.

The illustrations have a manga-like feel to them that also connects to Japanese culture, and have a muted green and yellow color palette interspersed with some darker nighttime shades of mauve and plum. The translation is very smooth, and young readers probably won’t even realize this is a translation from the French. I liked the notes at the end detailing the author’s research and showing some photographs of Fukushima.

Readers who were interested in the recent graphic novel Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters: A Graphic Memoir by Yevgenia Nayberg or who have found other stories about disasters like Faris’s Finding Normal, Brown’s Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, and Bard’s Wildfire interesting will want to pick this up.