Saturday 13 March 2021
Tokyo - In March 2011, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off Japan’s northeast coast, causing a deadly tsunami that triggered a nuclear meltdown.
AFP’s Tokyo bureau mobilised quickly, and journalists have spent years reporting from the affected Tohoku region. A decade after the disaster, which left around 18,500 people dead or missing, AFP journalists returned to the area to report a series of stories ahead of the anniversary.
Picture taken by a Miyako City official on March 11, 2011 (AFP / Jiji Press)
Four of the journalists involved in that coverage also reported from Tohoku for AFP in the immediate aftermath of the disaster text reporters
La mémoire intacte de Fukushima et du Tohoku afp.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from afp.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Yuto Naganuma looks silently as the cold sea breeze sweeps over the crumbling walls of the school where his little brother was lost in Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami.
Ten years on, Naganuma and others like him form a generation whose young lives were shaped by what is known in Japan as the triple disaster: a powerful earthquake that sparked a terrifying tsunami and the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The children of the tsunami lost family, homes, schools and entire communities, and for some the experience sparked a drive to work in disaster awareness, or help children like them who have lived