2 years later: before and after

It's impressive how Japanese people worked so hard during these two years to allow life coming back...

Check out these impressive comparison photos taken from the same places, just after the EQ and two years later....

In a few days, Japan will mark the 2nd anniversary of the devastating Tohoku earthquake and resulting tsunami. The disaster killed nearly 19,000 across Japan, leveling entire coastal villages. Now, nearly all the rubble has been removed, or stacked neatly, but reconstruction on higher ground is lagging, as government red tape has slowed recovery efforts. Locals living in temporary housing are frustrated, and still haunted by the horrific event, some displaying signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Collected below are a series of before-and-after interactive images. Click on each one to see the image fade from before (2011) to after (2013)

The tsunami-devastated Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, is pictured in this side-by-side comparison photo taken March 12, 2011 (left) and March 4, 2013 (right), ahead of the two-year anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged so much of northeastern Japan. (Reuters/Kyodo)


Rusted vehicles and tsunami debris in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, on March 19, 2011, and March 1, 2013

See the whole photo set at theatlantic.com

Thanks a lot for this, I've been wondering a lot lately what it's like now over there...

They've done a great job of cleaning up but these pics really depress me

reply to post by elevenaugust

I'm glad there's not much reconstruction in the low-lying areas, though I'm not sure how long that will hold. One hillside had a centuries old stone marker saying to not build any houses below that point because they would be destroyed by tsunamis...and of course there was much construction below that point when the tsunami happened and the stone marker was right.

Let's hope they learned something about building in tsunami-prone areas.

I have found some more (I don't know how to show them in the post):

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/HamP

More here.

LINK

Great photos, I agree with posster..

It’s really nice to see a topic about Japan in The Nuclear Forum… I mean the “Japan Forum”.

Arbitrageur really interesting point about how someone sacrificed some wealth to place a stone marker telling people never to build in certain places, whilst others have scarified everything by ignoring it. I wonder how many centuries people will resist? I wonder if they’re already being told it’s safe to build? Shameful if true, and another reason to be a person as opposed to Sheeple.

Wow - that is impressive.

Now that they've cleaned up Japan, can they please come and clean up the coast of British Columbia, where most of the debris wound up?