Before: Tsunami Breaches Seawall
Photograph from Miyako City Office via Reuters
A year ago this week, a tsunami wave crashes over a seawall in the city of Miyako, Japan, shortly after a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the region. (See National Geographic News's complete Japan earthquake and tsunami coverage.)
March 11, 2012 marks the first anniversary of that devastating quake, which triggered a monster tsunami that left many of Japan's coastal towns in ruins and sparked a nuclear disaster at the country's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (Related photos: "The Nuclear Cleanup Struggle at Fukushima.")
The twin disasters claimed more than 19,000 lives, and thousands of victims are still unaccounted for.
"People who lost their beloved family members are still very sad," saidKimimasa Mayama, a Tokyo-based photographer who traveled around Japan taking pictures of the devastation not long afterward.
—Ker Than
After: Picking up the Pieces
Photograph by Toru Hanai, Reuters
Cars and buses drive down a street in Miyako, Japan, in a photograph taken on February 17, 2012, nearly one year after tsunami waves crashed over the coastal city's seawall.
The twin quake and tsunami disaster, Japan's worst crisis since World War II, has now left at least 9,079 people dead and 12,645 missing, with entire communities along the northeast coast swept away.
The Japanese government is working to rebuild affected areas, but not fast enough for some.
"I feel it is very slow," Mayama said
Before: Deadly Waves
Photograph from Miyako City Office via Reuters
A wave from the Japan tsunami washes over a seawall in Miyako in this photograph taken on March 11, 2011.
The deadly earthquake-tsunami combination also triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, sparking fears of radiation exposure around the globe.
Japanese photographer Mayama visited the power plant earlier this year and said the accident still looks fresh.
"It looks the way it did just after the explosion," he said. "We had to wear heavy protective suits and gas masks ... It was terrible."
After: No Trace of Tsunami
Photograph by Toru Hanai, Reuters
A year after the Japan earthquake, a seawall in Miyako shows few traces of having been breached by a tsunami.
But it's what people can't see that may be the most worrisome legacy of the March 11 earthquake. For instance, the reactor's meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has many concerned about being exposed to radiation from contaminated food and water.
Before: Tsunami-Tossed Boat
Photograph by Kimimasa Mayama, European Pressphoto Agency
A tsunami-tossed boat tossed by giant waves lies atop a building in the city of Otsuchi in northern Japan on May 7, 2011.
The day after the earthquake struck, Mayama was in the city of Yamato documenting the destruction when a woman approached him and led him to the mangled wreck of a car where her dead daughter was trapped.
Despite the devastation around them and no help in sight, she and her husband couldn't leave, and she continued to brush the girl's hair with a comb. "I could see only the hair," Mayama said. "She said it's my daughter, it's my daughter."
The woman explained that she had approached Mayama because she wanted him to take pictures to document their loss. "I've never forgotten that," Mayama said. One year later, Mayama said he is still searching for the woman so he can give her the photographs.
After: Deserted Town
Photograph by Kimimasa Mayama, European Pressphoto Agency
The stranded boat and much of the debris in Otsuchi left behind by the tsunami has been cleared away in this picture taken on February 15, 2012, by Mayama.
"The town is clean and the debris has been removed," Mayama said, "but there are no people living there.
Before: Climbing the Rubble
Photograph by Kimimasa Mayama, European Pressphoto Agency
An elderly couple climbs over debris while walking toward their house in the tsunami-devastated city of Kesennuma in northern Japan on March 14, 2011, a few days after the earthquake hit.
Mayama predicts it will be several years before some of the towns and cities affected by the disasters can return to a semblance of what they once were.
Part of the reason, he said, is that many "people can't rebuild houses or offices at the same places because they are waiting for permission from the government, which has imposed new building restrictions.
After: Abandoned Rails
Photograph by Kimimasa Mayama, European Pressphoto Agency
A railway in the northern Japanese city of Kesennuma is clear once again in a photograph taken February 16, 2012.
One year ago, the same stretch of track was blocked by debris and a car that had been washed there by an earthquake-triggered tsunami.
Before: Car on a Roof
Photograph by Carlos Barria, Reuters
Deposited by waves, a car lies atop an abandoned building in Minamisanriku last March.
While large cities such as Sendai have been able to bounce back from the Japan earthquake and tsunami, smaller coastal cities such as Otsuchi are still devastated, Mayama said.
"In some of the towns and cities, there is nothing," he said. "No buildings, no houses. Nobody lives or works there."
After: Car Still on a Roof
Photograph by Toru Hanai, Reuters
A car tossed by waves is still sitting on the roof of a Minamisanriku building a year later, as seen on February 21, 2012—though the building is in better shape. "It's funny, but I don't think anyone cares," Mayama said.
Before: Devastated City
Photograph by Nicolas Asfouri, AFP/Getty Images
Night falls on Rikuzentakata, a city destroyed by the Japan tsunami and earthquake, in a long-exposure photograph taken March 22, 2011.
Mayama said the disasters have instilled a strong mistrust among many Japanese for nuclear power experts, many of whom were vague about the extent of the damage sustained at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the accident
After: Ghost Town
Photograph by Toru Yamanaka, AFP/Getty Images
A car drives along a road in Rikuzentakata on January 15, 2012, nearly one year after the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami devastated the area.
Mayama said he hopes his country will be better prepared should a similar disaster strike, but he has his doubts.
"I hope so. Everybody hopes so. But I wonder if we can prepare for the next one. Preparation takes much time and much money," he said.
Leaving Home
Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP
In 1 of 20 unforgettable pictures of Japan's tsunami aftermath chosen by National Geographic photo editors, rescue team members carry the body of a man through splintered remains of the village of Saito on Monday.
The town is just one of many nearly erased from Japan's northeastern coast, where water, electricity, and telecommunications are largely unavailable.
As of Monday an estimated 350,000 people are reportedly homeless in the wake of Friday's magnitude 9 earthquake—Japan's biggest on record. According to the police chief of hard-hit Miyagi Prefecture, at least 10,000 are dead, the Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, Tuesday morning (local time) brought fresh cause for concern from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where emergency efforts to use seawater to cool one of three malfunctioning nuclear reactors failed temporarily, the New York Times reported. As water levels dipped, fuel rods were likely exposed to air, increasing the chances of melting—and of a catastrophic meltdown.
Add to this the threat of further earthquakes—the U.S. Geological Survey registered nearly a hundred aftershocks on Sunday alone—and, for now, there seems to be little light at the end of what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called Japan's "worst crisis since World War II."
Path Through Destruction
Photograph by Damir Sagolj, Reuters
A survivor walks his bicycle through the remains of the devastated Japanese town of Otsuchi on March 14
Wave of Destruction
Photograph from Mainichi Shimbun/Reuters
A tsunami wave crashes over a street in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, in northeastern Japan on March 11
Survivor's Sorrow
Photograph from Asahi Shimbun, Reuters
A woman mourns the devastation of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, in northern Japan on March 13
Houses Destroyed
Photograph from Kyodo/Reuters
Rescue workers search for Japan earthquake victims amid shattered houses in Nodamura, Iwate Prefecture, on March 14..
More Pictures: Where Will Next Mega-Tsunami Strike?
Photograph from European Pressphoto Agency
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