I wonder where the money came from to fund this evacuation?:

The Department of Defense paid nearly $35 million for U.S. military families who chose to flee Japan amid the Fukushima nuclear crisis earlier this year, according to figures obtained by Stars and Stripes.

As radiation leaked from the damaged power plant in March, about 9,720 dependents at bases in central and northern Japan took the military up on its offer of a voluntary evacuation, flying to the United States and a handful of other countries where their lodging and daily expenses were later reimbursed by the government.

The evacuation order lasted one month, but some families chose to stay in the U.S. longer to allow children to finish the school year where they had taken shelter.

The families’ daily living expenses alone cost the DOD more than $20 million and were mostly rung up in military cities such as San Diego and small towns throughout the country where evacuees sought refuge, the four services reported.

Airfare out of Japan, including military-chartered flights, added another $14 million to the total bill, according to U.S. Forces Japan and the DOD press office.

During the crisis, military commanders on the ground had repeatedly told families living on bases in Japan there was no significant radiation threat, but there was still a flood of frightened residents boarding flights out of the country after the DOD issued the voluntary evacuation order March 17. [Stars & Stripes]

ROK Heads may remember how some of these families that were evacuated used the money to fund vacations to Hawaii.