The citizens of Japan, learning of the earthquake, hoped that the strong earthquake was the end of the story, but a few minutes later a tsunami warning was issued for the east coast of the country. Local authorities activated the evacuation plan and hoped that the huge dams built to protect coastal settlements would withstand the wave.
The Japanese seismographic center estimated that the height of the tsunami would be about six meters, a large and dangerous wave on any scale, but what made its way to the shores of Japan was a water wall 16 meters high. The first images to arrive were of Sendai City International Airport, located near the shoreline, as the wave washed over it, sweeping away the large passenger planes, erasing the runways and flooding the lane houses.
The sights were repeated throughout the coastal towns. In most cases, the dams and sea walls that were built did not meet the task and the huge wave progressed and erased the light construction that characterizes small towns in Japan. The wave swept away everything that was called in its path. The great tragedy was that in many cases, the safe gathering areas to which the civilians were evacuated, were discovered as death traps that were within the range of destruction.
Nearly 20,000 Japanese civilians were killed, more than 2,000 are still missing. The bodies of many were swept into the sea. But horribly, the deadly tsunami was just the beginning of another catastrophe, the effects of which are evident to this day.
“Nuclear catastrophe”
The tsunami that swept the shores of Japan penetrated the defenses of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the largest in Japan at the time, and flooded the miners with seawater, causing damage and mass to four of the miners. A tremendous amount of radioactive radiation was emitted from the reactors. In the incident itself only two workers were injured by radiation burns and one more case of death later from cancer was recognized as related to the leak.
The Japanese government evacuated about 150,000 people within a 80-mile radius of the power plant, and many of the residents did not return to their homes even after a decade. Measurements made have shown that the damaged reactors still release large amounts of cesium and other radioactive materials and the site is running out of space to store the polluted seawater in which the reactors are cooled.
“The nuclear disaster in Fukushima will tarnish the history of nuclear energy. The tragedy is that it is a largely man-made disaster.”
“It’s not exactly the same thing,” the veteran artist told Reuters, standing in the new workshop built by the local municipality for him and the other potters the town has known for centuries. “But I’m happy to be in Nami again. The scenery here is great and it helps to relax and focus on work,” he says.