Nine and a half years on, new townscapes emerge in disaster-hit areas in northern Japan
Left: Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture is seen at 9:22 a.m. on March 12, 2011. A 15-meter-high tsunami hit the city, destroying houses and shops. Some mid-sized steel-framed buildings such as supermarkets and apartment complexes sustained the onslaught.
Right: New houses and shops are seen in Rikuzentakata on Aug. 20. A museum and other facilities are currently under construction. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Many lives were claimed in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Nine and a half years on from the natural disaster and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No.1 power plant, the process of rebuilding affected towns has seemed extremely slow. However, looking back at images taken in March 2011, it is clear the landscape has changed drastically.
Left: The Kumagawa area of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture is seen at 4:59 p.m. on March 11, 2011. The area is located 3 kilometers south of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Right: An interim nuclear waste storage facility as seen on Aug. 28 in Okuma has drastically changed the area's once bucolic landscape. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)
