A man looked for his photographs at a collection center Friday in Sendai, Japan, for items found after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. A year later, more than 250,000 photographs and personal belongings on display for owners to recover. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)
Evacuation drills are common in Japan’s earthquake zones. So when the real thing happened in March, the children knew what to do - and expected to return in a few days. Months have gone by since the students fled. Still sitting in the classroom cubbies are the leather book bags that can cost several hundred dollars apiece and are one of a Japanese child’s most valuable and cherished possessions. They will likely never be reclaimed. (© David Guttenfelder/National Geographic)
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In June, National Geographic sent AP photographer David Guttenfelder into the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, which was badly damaged in the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. He captured images of communities that had become ghost towns, with pets and farm animals roaming the streets. Later, in November, Guttenfelder returned to photograph the crippled reactor facility itself as members of the media were allowed inside for the first time since the triple disaster last March. In some places, the reactor buildings appear to be little more than heaps of twisted metal and crumbling concrete. Tens of thousands of area residents remain displaced, with little indication of when, or if, they may ever return to their homes. Collected here are some images from these trips — the first six are from the December 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, now on newsstands, and more photos can be seen at the National Geographic website.
Futon bedding is usually folded and stored in closets each morning. But residents had no chance to put their homes in order before their hasty exodus, prompted by evacuation orders on televised news conferences before dawn on March 12. This bedroom is in Okuma, less than three miles from the damaged nuclear plant. Town officials in the area have accused power company Tepco of violating its duty to warn them of the crisis. (© David Guttenfelder/National Geographic)
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In June, National Geographic sent AP photographer David Guttenfelder into the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, which was badly damaged in the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. He captured images of communities that had become ghost towns, with pets and farm animals roaming the streets. Later, in November, Guttenfelder returned to photograph the crippled reactor facility itself as members of the media were allowed inside for the first time since the triple disaster last March. In some places, the reactor buildings appear to be little more than heaps of twisted metal and crumbling concrete. Tens of thousands of area residents remain displaced, with little indication of when, or if, they may ever return to their homes. Collected here are some images from these trips — the first six are from the December 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, now on newsstands, and more photos can be seen at the National Geographic website.
A broken picture frame is left in the tsunami-hit Arahama area, three months and two days after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on June 13, 2011 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. (Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)
Many family photographs have been found in the rubble and ruins of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11. In Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, photographer Toru Hanai explains that search and rescue teams, police, firefighters and the Japan Self Defense Force have been gathering the muddied and damaged pictures and bringing them to the local police station. At the Collection Centre the images are cleaned under the direction of project leader and Ofunato resident Satoko Kinno, a paper conservator and graduate of Camberwell College of Arts in London.
Once restored the images are taken to the shelters where they can be reclaimed by their owners. This photograph, taken by Hanai on April 12, shows a volunteer washing and drying images of one single child, a 4 year-old girl. Just a few days after this photo was taken, Kinno got word that the child and her mother and father had all survived the earthquake and tsunami, and were safe. The photographs will be returned to the family.
Vincent Yu/AP Photo
A man looked for his personal belongings at a collection center for items found in the rubble of an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in Natori, northern Japan. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
A volunteer dries photographs unearthed from the tsunami devastation in Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture on April 14, 2011. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
A Japanese woman searches for family albums and belongings among a pile of items recovered from the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and displayed at a school gymnasium in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Wednesday, April 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
A picture frame and high-water marks are seen on the wall of a kindergarten destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, northern Japan, April 7, 2011. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
A volunteer cleaned a family photo that was washed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as baby photos were placed to dry at a volunteer center in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, April 12, 2011. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)
Photos found in tsunami debris were displayed so people could identify and claim them at a gym that now functions as an evacuation center in Otsuchi, Japan, Monday. A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Japan Monday, one month to the day after a deadly earthquake and tsunami. (Dennis M. Sabangan/European Pressphoto Agency)
A photograph is seen in the rubble of a destroyed house in Otsuchi, Japan on March 22, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj)
A survivor checks salvaged memorial pictures and goods on display at a corner of the town hall in Yamada town, Iwate prefecture on March 25, 2011. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
