TOKYO – The images still have the power to shock.
Dazed survivors walk under giant sea tankers dumped amid the rubble and twisted iron that was once a busy downtown area. The ships fell on their sides like children’s toys. Mourning survivors rummage through the flattened rubble where their homes used to be. Abandoned farms stand in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where a catastrophic meltdown still reverberates.
These arresting images were captured by The Associated Press in 2011 after a massive wall of water leveled part of Japan’s northeast coast, washing away cars, houses, office buildings and thousands of people.
Ten years later, AP journalists have returned to document the communities torn apart by what is referred to here simply as the Great East Japan Earthquake. The urge to rebuild in a country ravaged by millennia of disaster – volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, war and famine – is strong, and there are areas where little or no trace of the devastation of 2011 can be seen is.
But this triple disaster in Japan’s Tohoku region – earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown – was unlike any other Japan before, and the challenges of returning to what was normal a decade ago were immense. Half a million have been driven from their homes; Tens of thousands have not returned, emptying cities that have already struggled to keep their young people from traveling to Tokyo and the other megacities. Fears of radiation remain. Government incompetence, minor squabbles and bureaucratic disputes have delayed construction efforts.
Despite the setbacks and uneven progress, the 2021 Tohoku is a testament to a collective willpower – national, local and personal. However, if you look carefully you will find that even the most breathtaking changes carry the remains of 2011, the scars of that deep wound, into the psyche of the area.
These AP images then and now raise a fundamental question: How do you mark changes after a major trauma?
In a way, it’s the easiest thing in the world to describe. The removal of tons of rubble here, the absence of overturned tankers there. The paved roads on which piles of asphalt had previously been cracked and buckled. The shiny new buildings that now rise above the cleared stains of dirt.
But the rigor of this physical change also brings with it the idea of something that is much less clear-cut, something about the people who live in these places. Their resilience, their stoicity, their sadness and anger, and their stubborn refusal to bow to forces beyond their control, whether natural or bureaucratic.
All of this and more is present in these powerful scenes from before and after, then and now.
The pictures tell the story – of great changes and the people who made them possible.
In this file photo dated March 15, 2011, vehicles drive through the ruins of the flat town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, four days after the tsunami devastated the area. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated March 7, 2016, construction work is being carried out in the flat town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan almost five years after the March 11, 2011 tsunami. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Vehicles drive through the streets of Minamisanriku City in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan on March 6, 2021, nearly 10 years after the March 11, 2011 tsunami. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
CORRECTION DATE – In this file photo dated March 15, 2011, a survivor of the earthquake and tsunami rides a bicycle through the flat city of Minamisanriku in northeastern Japan four days after the tsunami. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated February 23, 2012, almost a year after the March 11 tsunami, a car drives through the flat town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
This March 5, 2016, file photos, trucks and cars drive through the flat town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan, almost five years after the tsunami. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko, File)
A woman walks through the city of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan on Saturday, March 6, 2021, almost ten years after the tsunami. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
In this file photo dated February 22, 2012, two officers are walking down a street as the tsunami and earthquake devastated Onagawa City, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated March 19, 2011, residents of the tsunami and earthquake that destroyed the city of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, walk down an empty street. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated March 5, 2016, trucks are queuing to dump soil in the tsunami and the earthquake-devastated city of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Ten years after the disaster, some new buildings are sparsely visible in the tsunami and earthquake-destroyed city of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan. Thursday March 4, 2021. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
In this file photo dated March 28, 2011, a ship is in a destroyed residential area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, after a strong tsunami hit the area on March 11th. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated February 23, 2012, a ship is in a destroyed residential area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan, almost a year after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country’s coast. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
This file photo dated March 6, 2016 shows the reconstruction of the 2011 tsunami-ravaged residential area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Tsunami-ravaged residential area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan, can be seen on Friday, March 5, 2021. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
In this file photo dated February 23, 2012, Japanese residents are seen on a street in the devastated part of the city of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan on February 23, 2012, almost a year after the March 11, 2011, tsunami. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
In this file photo dated March 7, 2016, a worker inspects the construction site in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
In this file photo dated February 23, 2012, almost a year after the March 11, 2011 tsunami, vehicles are driving through the ruins of the flat city of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan. (AP Photo / David Guttenfelder, file)
Almost 10 years after the 2011 tsunami disaster, recovered streets can be seen in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan, Friday March 5, 2021. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
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