Great East Japan Earthquake

For those traveling through Japan’s Iwate prefecture, a visit to Takata Matsubara Memorial Park for Tsunami Disaster and the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum serves as more than a history lesson. It is an encounter with resilience, a tribute to those lost and a call to never forget.

Perched along the scenic coastline of Japan’s Iwate prefecture, the Taro Kanko Hotel once stood as a symbol of hospitality, offering guests views of the Pacific Ocean and the nearby Sannoiwa Rocks. But since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, it has been transformed into a poignant memorial.

Brianne Engle may be one of the few people affiliated with the U.S. military to be front and center for two historic natural disasters in two parts of the world, seven years apart.

Residents of this northern Japan air base, most still without electricity or heat following thea massive earthquake that rocked Japan early Friday afternoon, scrambled Saturday to stock up on supplies before darkness fell again.

Misawa’s Dragon-Eagle Taiko drum team celebrated its 12th anniversary with a fund-raising performance Saturday to benefit the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.

Most servicemembers and their families now living in mainland Japan weren’t there on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake combined with a tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and set off an ongoing nuclear crisis.