![]() Ishinomaki, the second largest city in Miyagi prefecture, was one of the worst-hit communities by the tsunami. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will attend a memorial, pausing for a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., the exact time the earthquake struck 10 years ago.ĭespite the destruction wrought, many survivors have rebuilt their lives and communities, but for many the legacy of the disaster will forever remain. This year, ceremonies to mark the disaster’s tenth anniversary will be low key and socially distanced amid the coronavirus pandemic. As the water swept in, cooling mechanisms failed, melting fuel in three reactors and spewing deadly radioactive particles into the surrounding area, which have since dispersed and decayed to less-dangerous levels. ![]() Within 50 minutes of the first quake, the tsunami waves crested a 10-meter (33 feet) sea wall intended to protect the nuclear plant. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in this part of Japan, became a catastrophe of its own. But the devastation went deeper than natural disaster. More than 20,000 people died or went missing in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. He says he doesn’t know that person’s fate – but Kurosawa had just survived the deadliest natural disaster in Japanese history. He thought of his wife – he’d reached her on her cellphone for 15 seconds while in the tree, before the line went dead.Īs night turned to day, he heard someone in the distance calling for help with what seemed like their last ounce of energy. For hours, Kurosawa endured sub-zero temperatures. ![]() Others who had been hanging on to trees felled by the waves were swept away. The water was so cold it chilled me to the bone,” he recalls.Īs the water came up to his knees, Kurosawa saw people in cars gripping their steering wheels as their vehicles were washed down the road. “I felt like the ocean was all around me. Minutes before waves up to 10 meters (nearly 30 feet) high swept in, Kurosawa, then aged 40, had scrambled 3 meters (10 feet) up a pine tree, wrapped his legs around a branch and hung on for his life. Kenichi Kurosawa clung precariously to a tree as the water rose around him, entirely flooding the roads below.įor almost six minutes on March 11, 2011, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake – the worst to ever hit Japan – struck 370 kilometers (230 miles) northeast of Tokyo, triggering a huge tsunami that crashed into Ishinomaki, the coastal city Kurosawa had lived in his whole life. ![]()
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