Two Months Later: Tsunami Devastated Japan
| May 9, 2011 | 0 |
Two months ago this week, on March 11, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. As of today, nearly 15,000 deaths have been confirmed, and more than 10,000 remain listed as missing. In some coastal communities, where the ground has sunk lower than the high tide mark, residents are still adjusting to twice-daily flooding. Many thousands still reside in temporary shelters because their homes were either destroyed or lie within the exclusion zone around the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Now that tourism season has arrived, Japan — especially Fukushima prefecture — is finding itself hit by yet another disaster: visits to the country have dropped by 50 percent. Collected below are images from the tsunami-affected areas of Japan over the past several weeks. [42 photos]
Cherry blossoms cover a tree among tsunami wreckage in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, on April 18, 2011. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images) 
The high-water mark from the March 11 tsunami is visible on a wall and clock in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Saturday, April 16, 2011. The water in many places along Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast struck by tsunami rose above head level, and everything below the waterline was destroyed or left covered by mud. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev) #
This combination photo shows a sequence of images (left to right, top to bottom) of the March 11 earthquake-triggered tsunami sweeping away aircraft and vehicles as it hit Sendai airport in northern Japan, in still images taken from video footage from the Japanese Coast Guard released April 28, 2011. (Reuters/Japan Coast Guard) #
A new student waits for his parents after a entrance ceremony at Kamaishi elementary school in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, April 20, 2011. Nineteen new students took part in the entrance ceremony which was held 13 days late due to the earthquake. (Reuters/Toru Hanai) #
Cherry blossoms and other flowers are seen at the Hanamiyama park in Fukushima, northeastern Japan on April 18, 2011. The prefecture’s once-vibrant tourism industry is feeling the fallout of recent disasters. Along with the direct economic hit, farmers and businesses face so-called “fuhyo higai,” or damages stemming from the battered reputation of the Fukushima brand. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) #
Wakana Kumagai, 6, waits for her mother Yoshiko after visiting the grave of her father, who was killed by the March 11 tsunami, at a temporary mass grave site in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi prefecture, April 21, 2011, after attending an entrance ceremony of Omagari elementary school. (Reuters/Toru Hanai) #
Wakana Kumagai prays with her mother Yoshiko and brother Koki in front of the grave of her father, who was killed by the March 11 tsunami, at a temporary mass grave site in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi prefecture, April 21, 2011. Her father, Kazuyuki, called his wife Yoshiko just after the March 11 earthquake to tell her to take the children to Omagari elementary school which was serving as a shelter. He was found near the shelter four days after the tsunami, Yoshiko said. (Reuters/Toru Hanai) #
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) officials remove a diesel electric generator at Nong Jok power plant in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 27, 2011, before preparing it to be shipped to Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) requested last month to borrow Thailand’s power generators for at least 3-5 years to ease Japan’s power shortage caused by devastation from March 11’s earthquake and tsunami. (Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom) #
US and Japanese soldiers prepare to clear debris left by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami from the tracks around Rikuzenono Station in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, on April 24, 2011. Some 60 US and 30 Japanese soldiers took part in the clean up “Operation Soul Train.” (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) #
This Saturday May 7, 2011 image from video footage released on Sunday May 8, 2011 by Tokyo Electric Power Co., shows spent fuel storage pool of the Unit 4 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.) #
EFA Laboratory manager Eric Eguina puts sample material in a plastic bag while looking for materials possibly containing asbestos in an area devastated by the March 11 tsunami in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan on April 22, 2011. Inside the chunks of slate and wallboard smashed and scattered by Japan’s tsunami hides a health risk that has been overshadowed by contamination from a leaking nuclear plant: the odorless and nearly invisible threat of asbestos. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) #
Crocidolite, a type of asbestos is seen on a material through a lens of a polarized light microscope at a makeshift laboratory where EFA Laboratory manager Eric Eguina works in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan on April 22, 2011 photo. Chrysotile, another type of asbestos, orange color seen next to the blue crocidolite, is also found on the material. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) #
A man expresses his feelings during a memorial service for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at Flora Memorial Hall in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Buddhist priests in black and gold robes chanted and rang bells Thursday to mark the 49th day since Japan’s massive tsunami, when the dead are believed to end their restless wandering through the devastated coastline. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) #
A wrecked car carries a flag of Shotaro Ishinomori’s cartoon character “Cyborg 009” at a devastated area by the March 11 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Thursday, May 5, 2011. Nearly two months after their lives were turned upside down by the massive tsunami, the boys and girls of Ishinomaki, many who live still live in shelters or half-ruined homes surrounded by debris, were treated to a stage show of cartoon characters as part of the country’s annual Children’s Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) #
Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko pay tribute to those killed by the deadly earthquake and tsunami last month as they look around a damaged fishing port in Otsu town in Kitaibaraki, about 70 km (42 miles) south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, April 22, 2011. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon) #
Tsutomu Murai, 31, right, with his wife Makiko, 28, and daughter Haruna, 8, watch the Pacific Ocean as they stand on the basement of their house washed out by tsunami wave in the area devastated by the March 11 tsunami and earthquake in the town of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, April 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev) #
