From the Archives

When the shaking began on the ninth floor of Sakura Tower at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, Melissa Lindfors wasn’t sure if it was the sort of thing her family would just have to get used to at their new duty station in Japan.

U.S. military manpower and equipment started arriving in Japan on Saturday to assist in rescue and humanitarian operations, as the death toll from Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake and powerful tsunami mounted along with concerns about the safety of nuclear power facilities in northern Japan.

The U.S. military authorized voluntary evacuations of eligible family members of Defense Department personnel Thursday from bases in mainland Japan following increasing worries over nuclear reactors damaged in the country’s largest recorded earthquake.

After more than six weeks of work, Misawa base residents are tackling their last major cleanup project along the tsunami-battered Japanese coast.

While it’ll be months before Misawa City’s tsunami-damaged port will be fully operational, officials are working around-the-clock to ensure they can handle an upcoming squid harvest that’s vital to the local economy.

Misawa has welcomed winter with a spike in traffic accidents, safety officials said.