Shoichi Oizumi was working in his auto parts factory in September when something went wrong at the nearby uranium processing facility in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Although it is located only 120 meters from the uranium-fuel facility, Oizumi's factory was not equipped with emergency radios. He and his wife, Keiko, the factory's only other worker, did not hear about the radiation leak that was to become Japan's worst nuclear accident until later.
As a result, his wife had to be hospitalized for shock.
Angered by authorities' mishandling of the crisis, Oizumi, 71, formed the first citizens' group representing several hundred victims of the deadly Sept. 30 disaster.