The tsunami of 10 years ago was commemorated in Japan. The disaster started with a severe earthquake in the sea, which triggered the tsunami. Large parts of the country were affected. In Fukushima, where a large nuclear power plant stood, it led to a nuclear disaster.
“The word commemoration suggests something from the past, but for many survivors the disaster is still something of today”, says NOS correspondent Kjeld Duits in the NOS Radio 1 News. Bodies are still being found and there are 2,500 missing people. “There is still so much pain, so much sorrow.”
Still emotionally heavy
The tsunami that followed the quake, which was more than ten meters high in places, claimed the lives of more than 18,000 people. The disaster area covered a stretch of coast of many hundreds of kilometers; entire cities and towns have been wiped out. The water came so quickly that many people could not escape. German: “Moving cars were overtaken by the tsunami.”
Many people are still very emotionally struggling according to German. “There is a man in the disaster area who had lost a family member before the disaster. He had such a hard time with it that he put an old telephone booth in his yard, with an unplugged phone to talk to that relative. he has opened his garden in Otsuchu so that everyone can use that telephone. “
–
