Creve Coeur Student Returning To Quake Zone Thursday

Almost a year ago, Richard Zajac was at home watching news coverage of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster which played out in Japan starting March 11, 2011. One year later, Zajac will be right in the middle of events commemorating the one year anniversary since the calamity.

Zajac, a senior at in Creve Coeur, leaves Thursday for Japan.

Zajac has been working on a documentary dealing with the efforts to get accurate data on radiation near the compromised nuclear plant. He's profiling an organization working in Japan which has detected levels in still populated areas that are higher than areas where an evacuation order has been in effect. The documentary also highlights the socioeconomic issues facing people in the region who wonder if their children will be able to find work, and love amid the fallout.

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Rachel Plassmeyer, a University City woman who traveled with Zajac to the region in September, will make the second trip as well. In an email, she shared details about what they plan to do while there.

"We are scheduled to interview University students from Fukushima, where the Dai-Ichi plant is located, and we hope to facilitate a discussion between those students and high school students from Joplin, as both sets of students, however far apart, are both approaching the one-year anniversary of their respective disasters. Richard is  scheduled to interview with CNN Asia, and we are hoping to go back and see how the rebuilding process is going in the areas we visited last September. This trip may have more of a somber tone to it; we also will try to make it to a memorial service on the anniversary, and I'm very interested to hear what the interviewees will say after having a year to digest what happened to them."

The second trip to Japan will wrap up interviews on the documentary, which Zajac said should be completed in the next few months.

Patch hopes to hear from Zajac during the journey. We'll share his impressions along the way.