MINAMISANRIKU, Japan (AP) – Japan on Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the 2011 tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and left a devastated coastline along the country’s northeast that has still not been fully rebuild.
In the town of Minamisanriku, a handful of tourists offered prayers in the morning at the skeletal remains of the former disaster prevention center, where 43 workers died as tsunami waves engulfed the building.
Nobuhito Akima, a businessman visiting for the first time from Tokyo, said the vast lands seem almost too clean. Much of the devastated Tohoku coast remains empty except for mounds of dirt brought in to raise the ground level to minimize risks from future tsunamis before any rebuilding is done.
“I don’t intend to say what’s right or wrong regarding the reconstruction, but I also feel like I can’t really tell where all this reconstruction is heading,” Akima said.
Masaki Kamei, a doctor from Tokyo who has been visiting disaster-hit areas every year, senses life is coming back.