"When you're at war you do what you have to do"

Those are the words of Kaori Suzuki, who became a scientist and, with a few other women, started a non-profit organisation - Tarachine. Here is the laboratory they set up to monitor radiation in the city of Iwaki.

None of these women had trained as scientists. One used to be a beautician, another was a hairdresser, yet another used to work in an office. They knew nothing about radiation. Then came Fukushima, and Suzuki and her associates did what they had to do.

With the help of experts and university professors, they organized training workshops and soon knew enough about radiation and with money they had raised, bought the proper instrument to test food contamination. The lab now measures the radioactive isotopes caesium 134 and 137, strontium 90 and tritiumand and collects data on gamma radiation. It publishes its findings online every month, and advises people to avoid foods with high readings as well as the places they were grown.

People bring in food, earth, grass and leaves from their backyards for testing. The lab also provides training and equipment to anyone who wants to do their own measurements. And the group keeps an eye on children's health. It runs a small clinic where doctors from all over Japan periodically come to provide free thyroid cancer check-ups for local children. Since screening began, six months after the meltdown, 166 children in Fukushima prefecture have been diagnosed with - or are suspected of having - thyroid cancer. This is a far higher rate than in the rest of the country, although some experts say that's due to over-diagnosis. And for parents who want to give their children a break from the local environment, Tarachine even organises summer trips to the south of the country.