Haunting photos show the residents who dared to go back to a ghost town destroyed by nuclear disaster Fukushima

In March 2011, the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl occurred in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was caused by an earthquake and then a resulting tsunami. Three major hydrogen explosions occurred on site over the course of three days.

The devastating string of events caused thousands of deaths, and over 100,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in the Fukushima Daiichi area.

Photographers Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression were on the ground in the days after the disaster, documenting the horrific events, but their more recent, five-year long project is a breathtaking series of staged photographs of locals returning to the "no-go" zone.

Their series, called "Retracing Our Steps," brought locals back to their abandoned homes and local businesses, acting as normal as possible given the tragic circumstances. Below, see their striking work.