Japan Earthquake: One Year Later

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This Sunday, March 11, will mark the one-year anniversary of the horrific earthquake that struck northeastern Japan, spawning an incredibly destructive tsunami that crippled the *** ushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In the year that has passed, much has changed. Mountains of rubble have been cleared, but not fully disposed of yet. Nuclear power has fallen out of favor, and confidence in the government has been shaken. Japan mourns the confirmed deaths of more than 15,850 people, and still lists 3,287 as missing 12 months later. Questions remain about rebuilding villages, cleaning up the nuclear exclusion zone, and deciding the future of nuclear power in Japan. Collected here are recent images of those affected by the disaster, coping and moving on one year later.​

 

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Yuko Sugimoto holds a picture of herself standing in the same place she stood in March 13, 2011, after the area was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture in northern Japan, on February 22, 2012. Sugimoto was photographed last year, wrapped in a blanket in front of a pile of debris as she looked for her son Raito who was missing (who she later found). Her picture became an iconic image of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Japan a year ago.​

 

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Chairs are strewn in a classroom of the Kadonowaki Elementary School on March 2, 2012 in Ishinomaki, Japan.​

 

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Pine trees, uprooted during last year's tsunami, lay strewn over the beach in Rikuzentakata, Japan, on March 07, 2012. ​

 

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Cars destroyed by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, at a devastated area in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, on March 9, 2012, ahead of one-year anniversary of last March 11 earthquake and tsunami.​

 

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A Buddhist monk bows and offers a prayer in a neighborhood destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 9, 2012, two days before the one-year anniversary of the disaster.​

 

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Manami Watanabe, 11, walks along a rail track which is no longer used since last year's tsunami in Minamisanriku town, in Miyagi prefecture, northeastern Japan, on February 24, 2012. Watanabe's father, a seaweed farmer, was one of the lucky 5.8 percent from his hometown whose boat survived the March 11, 2011 tsunami, however what he lost was much greater. Tsunami waves swept away his wife, mother and his house that was built on land handed down to him through 13 generations.​

 

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Students sit during their recreational activities session at Omika Elementary School, located about 21 km (13 miles) from the tsunami-crippled ***ushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Minamisoma, ***ushima prefecture, on March 8, 2012. The reopened elementary school, which is the nearest one located to the crippled nuclear power plant, had 205 students before the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. However, only 91 students remain following its reopening on October 17, 2011. ​

 

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A student wears a radiation monitor on his shirt at Omika Elementary School, near the tsunami-crippled ***ushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Minamisoma, ***ushima prefecture, on March 8, 2012.​

 

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Schoolchildren wear padded hoods to protect them from falling debris during a disaster drill named "Shakeout Tokyo" at Izumi elementary school in Tokyo, on March 9, 2012. Tokyo's Chiyoda ward residents, commuters, office workers and school children held a mass disaster drill on Friday in preparation for the next big earthquake. ​

 

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A child takes cover underneath his desk during a disaster drill named "Shakeout Tokyo" at Izumi elementary school in Tokyo, on March 9, 2012.​

 

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A man looks for his photographs at a collection center for items which were found in the rubble of an area devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, on March 9, 2012. More than 250,000 photographs and personal belongings are displayed at the center for owners to recover. ​

 

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Debris and non-recyclable home items lay strewn over the ground where houses and factories once stood on March 08, 2012 in Kesennuma, Japan. The fishing industry in North Eastern Japan's Tohoku area has suffered greatly after last year's tsunami. Numerous fishing towns had their equipment, factories, boats and livelihoods washed away. As a result large numbers of fisherman have turned to alternative industries, including laboring to clean the mountains of rubble left behind the tsunami, but most fight the uphill battle of rebuilding from scratch.​

 

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The Minamisanriku Disaster Emergency Center headquarters is seen out the window during a bus tour to learn about the effects of last year's March 11 earthquake and tsunami on March 05, 2012 in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture. ​

 

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A single pine tree that was left standing after the March 11 tsunami, which swept away an entire forest in the city of Rikuzentakata, is seen on March 07, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. People see the tree's miraculous survival as a symbol of hope and want to preserve it as a living monument.​

 

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Tires, belonging to vehicles destroyed during last year's devastating tsunami, sit covered in snow in Minamisanriku, Japan, on March 05, 2012.​

 

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A car washed onto the top of this building by last year's tsunami remains in place on March 08, 2012 in Minamisanriku, Japan. ​

 

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A stone statue of a mother holding a child, bundled up with knit scarves and a cap against the bitterly cold winter, stands near a special altar in front of the main gate of Okawa Elementary School where 74 of the 108 students went missing after the March 11 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on March 6, 2012. On Tuesday, one year after the disaster, 40 police officers conducted another search operation for the bodies of four students still yet to be recovered, in response to their families' request. ​

 

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Yasuhiro Sagara, a member of a volunteer group from Tokyo, loses his boot in the thick mud as he works to clear buried drainage pipes on March 9, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. Volunteer groups have come from all across Japan to help in the massive recovery effort. ​

 

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A man washes a door in a bathtub, in an attempt to remove radioactive contamination, at a private house in Hirono, outside Japan's nuclear exclusion zone, on February 20, 2012. A massive cleanup has begun in towns contaminated by radiation leaks from the ***ushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, but experts say there is no successful example they can follow, and they don't know how to judge the effectiveness of a process that is expected to last for years or even decades.​