In this combination photo, from top left to bottom right, a ship washed away by the tsunami sits in a destroyed residential neighborhood in Kesennuma, northeastern Japan, on March 28, 2011, the same ship sits on the same spot on Thursday, Feb 23, 2012, the same area is seen on March 6, 2016 after the ship was dismantled and on March 5, 2021. Photo: AP/David Guttenfelder and Eugene Hoshiko)
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Tsunami scars linger a decade later in Tohoku region

19 Comments
By FOSTER KLUG

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19 Comments
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Prayers and ‘support for all the survivors’. These would be the most respectful memorials to all the deceased.

As shocked, observers watched ‘live’ coverage by NHK those years ago, we can still never truly imagine the horror and helplessness the humanity there was facing.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Look at those pictures... They say more then a thousand words could say.

That's why we need those Sea walls built.

-Yes it's ugly.

-Yes it's expensive and time consuming.

But what's the alternative? ?

Death and destruction!

The people who died, got injured are not in those pictures. That's another side of the story you don't see.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

That's too bad, I loved the ship there. It could have made for an interesting rescue location as well so it would have helped that city in a case of new disasters. But such forward thinking is not possible

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

I'm surprised they haven't removed that boat. Maybe they plan on keeping it there as a humble reminder. I doubt it.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Seems suicidal to rebuild on the same grounds overtaken by the tsunami. The real story is why entire towns were not rebuilt on higher ground. Sometimes they have. Would like to know about these decisions.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

I think they shouldn´t have decided to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics...they had to turn their efforts to the reconstruction of the triple-disaster affected region: Iwate, Fukushima, Miyagi prefectures, mainly.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

"I'm surprised they haven't removed that boat. Maybe they plan on keeping it there as a humble reminder. "

From the article:

In this combination photo, from top left to bottom right, a ship washed away by the tsunami sits in a destroyed residential neighborhood in Kesennuma, northeastern Japan, on March 28, 2011, the same ship sits on the same spot on Thursday, Feb 23, 2012, the same area is seen on March 6, 2016 after the ship was dismantled and on March 5, 2021.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Radiation is more serious

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In this combination photo, from top left to bottom right, a ship washed away by the tsunami sits in a destroyed residential neighborhood in Kesennuma, northeastern Japan, on March 28, 2011, the same ship sits on the same spot on Thursday, Feb 23, 2012, the same area is seen on March 6, 2016 after the ship was dismantled and on March 5, 2021.

Thanks, now I understand why my comment got all negatives! I didn't realize the top 2 photos were the same area as the bottom 2 as they're taken from a different perspective, and so I didn't read the entire paragraph underneath.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was avoidable.

It was recommended that the plant be constructed on higher grounds to avoid a large tsunami.

The advice was ignored for financial reasons and it was built on sea level.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

In the bottom right photo you can see two new cookie-cutter houses. I bet that land was cheap!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@dan. It was built at sea level because components were transported by sea. Also the original more safer design was degraded to save costs. They knew the big tsunami there over 90 years ago was up to 31m and that it is highly likely to happen again.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Even after 10 years of "cleanup" efforts, the Fukushima nuclear reactor is a disaster waiting to happen again. If the same earthquake and tsunami happened today it likely would spread the reactor debris and stored contaminated waste over a wide area and might even make some of the area permanently uninhabitable. The cleanup should be speeded up, including the dilution and dumping of the stored contaminated water. If it is diluted to the level already present in the normal ocean is is safe to dispose of. Please get on with it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

During that period,. yes, the aftershock quakes were continues, and yes, we had the Radiation worries (potentially misinformation/Fake news) worries too. But we pulled through, and we are continuing as normal ...

such is Life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That's why we need those Sea walls built.

-Yes it's ugly.

-Yes it's expensive and time consuming.

-But what's the alternative?

Build on higher ground. There is no guarantee the new sea walls will be sufficient against a future tsunami. Some of those sea walls were built thinking they were high enough to defeat any tsunami. They weren't. Rebuilding on higher ground is a better choice. You can grow food on the lower ground and will have to put any port facilities at sea level but situate the town's buildings, the schools, homes and stores, higher up.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thanks, now I understand why my comment got all negatives! I didn't realize the top 2 photos were the same area as the bottom 2 as they're taken from a different perspective, and so I didn't read the entire paragraph underneath.

I recall arriving six months after Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston SC and seeing a pretty big fishing vessel still sitting in the median of a freeway, US17, just northeast of the city, apparently deposited there by the storm surge. It sat there for the six or so months I worked in the area.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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