World News

Remembering Fukushima: 10 Years After The Devastation

Jun Oshita, 46, holds a single shoe, the only memory he could find of his mother. Kuni Oshita, 73, was killed in the March 11 tsunami in Noda, which was almost completely destroyed after the earthquake and tsunami.
Jun Oshita, 46, holds a single shoe, the only memory he could find of his mother. Kuni Oshita, 73, was killed in the March 11 tsunami in Noda, which was almost completely destroyed after the earthquake and tsunami. David Gilkey / NPR

A decade ago, NPR photographer David Gilkey documented the aftermath of the destruction caused by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake triggered an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant that ravaged the region.

In an attempt to capture what happened, Gilkey said, "It's really hard to put any of this into a perspective that someone would understand at home. This town today was literally just ... gone." He was referring to the devastation in Rikuzentakata in the Iwate Prefecture.

On the 10th anniversary of this catastrophe, we look back at Gilkey's photos.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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