• Fukushima: Before, during and after

    DigitalGlobe

    DigitalGlobe acquired this satellite image of Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex on Feb. 2, 2012, almost a year after the tsunami. Click here for larger version.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News




    Satellite images tracked the catastrophic impact of Japan's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on the Fukushima nuclear complex and other key sites, and now they're tracking the reconstruction.

    To mark Sunday's anniversary of the disaster, DigitalGlobe is releasing pictures showing "before, during and after" views of the devastation. You can see the three views of Fukushima here — but you really should check out our interactive slideshow to get a better sense of the changes that have taken place over the past year at Fukushima and at the Port of Sendai, which was destroyed in the tsunami.

    "I'm struck by the progress, by how efficient the Japanese have been in reconstructing their infrastructure," Steve Wood, vice president of DigitalGlobe's analysis center, told me today. "In less than a year they've been able to turn this port into an active, functioning component. That's significant, considering that a year ago there were shipping containers, fires and mud covering that entire area. ... And there are literally hundreds of examples of that up and down the coast."

    In the hours, days and weeks after the March 11 quake, satellite operators funneled fresh imagery to disaster workers, relief groups, government agencies and private companies coping with the aftermath. "We saw everything from big industrial partners who wanted to see the status of their factories, to government agencies involved in the actual reconstruction," Wood said.

    Japanese officials and the U.S. military used the images to figure out which places were best for setting up aid operations, while relief organizations scanned wide-scale maps to see which areas were most in need of help. In places where planes weren't allowed to fly, "we were effectively the only game in town" for that initial post-quake aerial imagery.

    Today, satellite images provide an effective way to gauge how much progress is being made, through comparisons of the before-during-and-after views. "To communicate and explain that to people is really an important and powerful tool that I've seen evolve over the years," Wood said. Pictures from space were important in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, they're important for Japan, and they'll be important for current and future hotspots such as Syria.

    During Japan's crisis, Wood's team at DigitalGlobe was working 24/7, and the weeks and months have sped by. "It's hard for me to believe it's been a year," Wood said. For some of us, Sunday's anniversary may seem like a turning point — but it's really just one more day in the timeline of Japan's reconstruction. These pictures remind us that the work is far from finished.

    DigitalGlobe

    A labeled version of the image from Feb. 2 shows the status of the four nuclear reactor buildings at the Fukushima plant.

    DigitalGlobe

    A satellite image from March 14, 2011, shows the ruined Fukushima nuclear complex during the height of the crisis. Click here for larger version.

    DigitalGlobe

    A satellite image from Nov. 21, 2004, shows the Fukushima complex long before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Click here for larger version.

    More about the Japan quake and tsunami:

    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

     

  • Tsunami survivors: For a rice farmer, obstacles still ahead

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Katsushi Haga, 67, looks out window of his temporary house in Koizumi district of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, Japan on Feb 27, 2012. The tsunami on March 11, 2011 flattened the district, destroying 266 of its 518 households and killed about 30 of its estimated 1,800 residents, including Haga's 87-year-old mother, Tomiko.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Katsushi Haga relaxes in his temporary house as his wife, Eiko, cooks in the kitchen in the Koizumi district of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, Japan on Feb 27, 2012.

    Kyle Drubek for msnbc.com

    Rice farmer Katsushi Haga looks at the wiped out town of Koizumi, Japan, from a nearby hillside on June 8, 2011.

    Kuni Takahashi reports:

    Rice farmer Katsushi Haga, 67, and his wife, Eiko, 61, live in a temporary house built by the local government in Koizumi, a district of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture.

    “We are settling down and slowly getting comfortable for now,” Eiko Haga said. “On the other hand, we began realizing that there are many obstacles still ahead. The biggest concern is how will we rebuild our houses? We can’t stay in this temporary house forever.”  

    “Also, recovering the rice paddy is another issue. The local government (Kesennuma city) announced that they will try to clean up certain districts, but it’s a lot of work. First, you have to get rid of debris, then remove sand and grass and, lastly, remove the salt from the soil. If they can do it by June, we may be able to plant rice, but there are serious shortages of machines and tractors. I ordered a used tractor but it’s taking forever to get it.”

    Last year, Katushi Haga was working with other leaders to move his community uphill, but that has not been progressing as he had hoped.

    “Younger people formed a group named ‘Thinking about tomorrow’ to move the community up the hill but it’s not going as fast as expected,” he said. “Our community was one of the first to take action after the tsunami and it’s a bit disappointing to see that things haven’t moved fast. I suppose that people have jobs and it’s not easy to put all your time and effort into one issue. I don’t know the details because I am retired now and I’m letting the young ones dealing with it,” he said, laughing.

    “There are a few problems under the local government (rebuilding) plan. They only allow a resident to have 100-tsubo (3,555 square feet) in the new plot. It’s enough for regular people but not for farmers like us. We need extra storage space for tools and tractors.  Because of this, many farmers are reluctant to move forward.

    Asked about the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Eiko Haga said, “In a way, it’s far more serious in Fukushima. We are having tough time here but people in Fukushima are worse off. They can’t go back to their land for a long  time.”  

    Her husband  chimed in, “The government for such a long time kept telling us it’s safe, but look at what happened. There is always the possibility that another accident will happen again somewhere. What are they going to do? No one even took responsibility. It’s an issue of human lives.”

    When we spoke to Katsushi last year, he said that no longer wanted a view of the ocean. How does he feel about it now?  

    “I still have strange feeling about the ocean,” he said. “Before the tsunami, the ocean wasn’t visible from the bridge near my house because of all the building around. Now everything has gone, including the bridge and you see the ocean right there. It was soothing to see the ocean before, but no more. I feel like a tsunami may occur again.” 

    Eiko Haga added, “Some fishermen said that they hate earthquakes but not the ocean. The ocean is not guilty. But we are farmers and aren’t tied to the ocean like they are.”

    Katsuhi’s mother, Tomiko, 88, was killed in the tsunami, but her body wasn’t found until Jan. 18. It had been hidden under debris near a mountain. Katsushi said, “I often walked nearby. … It was a bit of surprise. We buried her on Feb. 12 and it was sort of a relief.”

     

    Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    A photo of Katsushi Haga's mother, Tomiko, is placed at a shrine in Katsushi's temporary house in the Koizumi district of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, Japan on Feb 27, 2012. Haga's 87-year-old mother perished when the tsunami struck their village in 2011.
    Photo by Kuni Takahashi

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Katsushi Haga sips a cup of tea with his wife, Eiko at their temporary house in Koizumi district of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, Japan on Feb 27, 2012.

  • Tsunami survivors: Starting a family and facing an uncertain future

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Koya Takahashi, left, and his wife, Megumi, play with their son, Nagato at their house in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, Feb 26, 2012. Nagato was born six days after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011, sweeping away many coastal towns including Minamisanriku.

    Jim Seida / msnbc.com

    Koya Takahashi, his wife Megumi and their three-month-old baby, Nagato, on June 13, 2011.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Megumi Takahashi, left, and her husband, Koya, and their son, Nagato on Feb 26, 2012.

    Kuni Takahashi reports:

    Koya Takahashi and his wife, Megumi, were expecting their first child in Minamisanriku, Japan, on March 11, 2011, the day the tsunami struck. Their son, Nagato, wasn’t born until five days later, after Megumi was flown to a Red Cross hospital in nearby Ishinomaki. Following his birth, they moved to Megumi’s parents’ house in Iriya, about 3 miles uphill from their house, which was not damaged but had no water or electricity for some time.

    “The difficulties we faced were the lack of water and electricity and that the hospital was more than an hour away by car,” Megumi said. “At night, I was using small solar-powered flashlight from an NGO to make milk and feed Nagato. Also, every day there were so many after-shocks and it was quite scary.”

    But in those early days, there was help. “There were many things that I didn’t know because it was my first baby,” said Megumi. “Volunteer nurses from all over Japan came to the area, providing assistance. It was very helpful -- materially and mentally.”

    Koya, who worked as a truck driver, lost his job after the tsunami because so many trucks were swept away. He eventually got a job at a construction site, but then broke his ankle.  Since his recovery, he has been working as a dump truck driver, hauling debris from towns affected by the disaster. In August, they were able to move back into their home after services were restored.

    “Too many things happened last year,” Koya said. “Having a baby is one big change, but the job situation has been tough. I was carrying debris out of my town and it slowly became very stressful. Especially when I found some children’s toys and clothes in debris. It was very difficult for me. I felt more sensitive to the things like that after becoming a father.”

    “Over the time, the stress built up and I became mentally unstable,” he said. “I often quarreled with my wife. It was getting harder so I quit that job and got another one driving in Ishinomaki (about 30 miles away). I still drive in the disaster-affected areas, but at least it’s not my hometown.”

    “As a father, my priority is to feed my family. No matter what, I have to keep working and earning,” he continued. “Since I commute a longer distance now, I have less time to see my son. I try to play with him as much as possible when I have time. We try to go shopping together every Sunday.”

    Looking to the future, Koya said, “I would like to raise my son here in Minamisanriku, but I have concerns as well. Because of the tsunami, communities are broken and lots of families have moved out.  The town’s population has been decreasing and the number of children in school is far less than before.  We are worried that whether there will be enough schools, teachers and friends for my son in five or 10 years.”

    “To be honest, sometimes I feel down, but I regain my energy when I see my son’s face. His smile makes me stronger and stronger. He is a strong kid because he was born in such a difficult time.”

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Koya Takahashi, his wife, Megumi and their son, Nagato, look out the window of their house in Minamisanriku, Feb 26, 2012.

     

  • Tsunami survivors: Struggling to live on, alone

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Shiro Yuyama is reflected in a photograph of his wife Tamako at his temporary housing in Onagawa, Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan on Feb 5, 2012. Tamako was killed in the massive tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011. Mr. Yuyama, who was working on building a barn right outside his house, couldn't save Tamako who was inside their home.

    Kuni Takahashi

    Shiro Yuyama, 70, looks at photograph of his wife Tamako at his temporary housing in Onagawa on Feb 5, 2012.

    Kuni Takahashi reports:

    Kuni Takahashi

    Shiro Yuyama, 69, looks for his belongings where his house used to be in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan on April 2, 2011 following the massive earthquake and tsunami. His wife, Tamako, was killed by the tsunami.

    Shiro Yuyama, 70, remembers with horrible clarity the day when the massive tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011, took his wife Tamako. Yuyama, who was building a barn right outside his house in the Onagawa district of the coastal village of Minamisanriku, couldn’t save Tamako who was inside when it was swept away.

    “I used to work on a fishing vessel so I can cook for myself," he said. "But I often lose my appetite eating alone now. I remember what it was like to share meals with my wife.”

    After the tsunami, Yuyama said he started drinking heavily. “Sometimes by myself, sometimes with my friend, I drank a lot. I have a friend who lost his mother, wife and son by the tsunami. We drank together, sometimes saying that it would be much easier if we committed suicide."  

    Then he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December.

    “I was trying to recover from my wife’s death and was slowly moving forward," he said. "The diagnosis was a huge blow. I feel like I've been pushed back to the starting point.”

    Yuyama stayed in an evacuation center for the first three months following the earthquake and tsunami, then moved into a one-room temporary home built by the government. His daughter and grandchildren, who used to visit him before the earthquake, rarely come now, as they are busy with school and their own lives and live about 18 miles to the south.

    “I wish I had another room to have my grandchildren sleep over," Yuyama said. "I can’t accommodate them when they come to visit.”

    His wife's body was recovered last year and she was buried on her birthday, Aug. 3. The place where their house used to be is only about a twenty minute walk from where he lives now, but he rarely visits. The land is empty, now that all the debris has been cleaned up.

    “One of my sons, who lives in Sendai, asked me to move to the city but I can’t," he said. "I don’t want to leave Onagawa. I can’t leave my wife behind here. I better live here until I die.”

    “My brother calls me sometimes asking if I need anything but I don’t need ‘things’ that I can buy. It’s just difficult to be alone in this temporary home.”

    Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Toppled buildings in Minamisanriku on Feb 19, 2012.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    The remains of a destroyed cemetery in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture on Feb 6, 2012.

     

  • Tsunami survivors: Waiting to rebuild on new land

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Masanori Sato, 34, looks at the empty land where his village used to be in Minamisanriku, Japan on Feb 4, 2012, near his half destroyed house. The 2011 tsunami swept away 34 houses in the village. Only three survived including Sato's house.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    The remains of the town hall stands in Minamisanriku, Japan on Feb 5, 2012. The March 11, 2011 tsunami swept away the entire town, killing over 800 including 20 who were in the building at the time it struck.

    Kuni Takahashi

    Masanori Sato plays a guitar in his debri-filled-house in MInamisanriku, Japan on March 31, 2011 following a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11.

    Kuni Takahashi reports:

    Masanori Sato, 34, is the son of a Shinto priest from the village of Minamisanriku in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. He has been thinking about the future of his community in the Nagashizu district since the tsunami on March 11, 2011 swept away 34 houses there -- leaving only his family’s house and two others standing.

    “At first I didn’t have a clue where to start, but I slowly began to see things clearly after moving out of the evacuation center into temporary housing," Sato said recently. "I felt myself settling down a bit. I want to put our village together again. The land has changed but the people are not all gone. We are talking about reviving our community just like it used to be – including both good things and bad things.”

    People from all over the country came to the disaster-hit area to help last year --providing food, medical services, cleaning up, etc. The townspeople were impressed by the volunteers' selfless attitude and Sato said they made enormous contributions during the first stage of the recovery. Though the number of volunteers had dwindled, there are still a few helping with the reconstruction and supporting seniors in temporary housing.

    Now the focus has shifted to long-term recovery. Sato and his neighbors are hoping that the government will allow them to rebuild their community on a nearby hill because Nagashizu is situated too low for rebuilding now. His family is still living in temporary housing about 2 miles away while they continue the renovations needed to make their house livable again. Even if the government approves the new site on the hill, they expect it to be three to five years before the community can resettle on new land.

    But Sato is willing to wait.

    “Being a tsunami survivor changed my way of thinking. I guess I learned from it. I realized how important the community is to help each other. I was too selfish before.”

    Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.

  • Tsunami survivors: Living in limbo with no savings

     

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, poses at her temporary house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on Feb 6, 2012. The 2011 tsunami swept away her house and all her belongings, including all her cash savings.

    Kuni Takahashi reports:

    Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, is living in temporary housing in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture. The tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011 swept away her house and all her belongings, including her cash savings.

     “Since I was sick with cold and my legs were weak, my son told me not to go back to the house but I kept sneaking out (to look for the missing money)," said Hatakeyama, who ended up spending four months in the hospital after injuring her back while sifting through the debris. She never found any of the missing money.

    Kuni Takahashi

    Fukuko Hatakeyama weeps near the debris of her house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on March 29, 2011, following a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, sweeping away her house and all her belongings.

    The lot where her house once stood is in a zone where the city prohibited rebuilding because of the risk of another tsunami. In many coastal areas, the land sank as much as 3 to 6 feet, making it even more susceptible to flooding. Many residential plots will be converted to public and industrial spaces.

    Hatakeyama went to the Kesennuma city office to find out about her land.  “I complained to them that it’s my land and you can’t change it into park," she said. "But they even don’t know what’s happening and how long it’ll take to make a plan.”

    Many residents are living in temporary houses built by the government, including Fukuko Hatakeyama and her husband Kojiro Hatakeyama, 83, who had been living in a nursing home prior to the tsunami. The expectation is that they will be allowed to extend their  tenancy beyond the planned two to three years because many will not be able to find new land to build on or new homes to move to. Meanwhile, though they are not paying rent for their temporary home, there has been no compensation or plans for their land and nearly a year later, they are still living in limbo.

     “I don’t know anyone outside of my town," Hatakeyama said. "At this age, where can I go with my sick husband staying in bed?”

     “When I'm sleeping, sometimes I have to sing a song. Otherwise I feel like I'm going crazy. My husband liked to hear me singing but I can’t sing as well as I used to …”

     

    Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, front, lives with her bedridden husband in a temporary house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    A fishing ship remains on the ground among the foundations of homes in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on Feb 6, 2012. A Massive earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011, sweeping away many coastal towns like this, killing over 15,000 and 3,000 are still missing.

     

  • Miyako City, Toru Hanai / Reuter

    Wall of water: This combination photograph shows one of the most noted images from the March 11, 2011, Japanese tsunami -- a defense wall in Miyako being overwhelmed by the wall of water thrown up by a magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake, one of the largest on record. The second photo was taken on Feb. 17, 2012.

    Then and now: The 2011 Japan tsunami

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    Last year's tsunami in Japan caused what is estimated to have been the most expensive natural disaster ever, with more than 15,000 lives lost. Click here to see a series of photos that show the destruction caused by the 2011 tsunami and the same scenes nearly a year later.

  • Tsunami survivors: Resuming life interrupted

    Kuni Takahashi

    A few walls of bathroom are all that remain of a house in a residential neighborhood in Sendai, Feb 18, 2012.

    Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com

    Jun Hirayama, 20, and his grandmother, Akiyo, 70, at their apartment in Sendai, Japan on Feb 21, 2012. The 2011 tsunami swept their house away and overtook the car they were driving, Akiyo spent a night on the roof of the half-submerged vehicle while Jun hung onto a tire drifting in freezing waters.

    Kuni Takahashi reports: 

    Kuni Takahashi

    Jun Hirayama,19 and his grandmother Akiyo Hirayama, 70, stand in front of other family members in front of the remains of their house in Sendai, Japan on April 4, 2011.

    Jun Hirayama, 20 and his grandmother, Akiyo Hirayama, 70, lost their home in the Japanese city of Sendai when the tsunami swept it away on March 11, 2011. They nearly lost their lives when it overtook the car they were driving to escape the wall of water. Akiyo spent a night on the roof of the half-submerged vehicle while Jun hung onto a tire -- drifting in freezing waters all night.  Akiyo's husband, Shinetsu Hirayama, with some family members in another car, was able to make it out safely.

    Jun Hirayama, a college student, had performed as a part-time music DJ at a nightclub, but he lost everything including his clothes and music equipment to the tsunami.

    “After the tsunami, I became less materialistic," he said. "I loved fashion and music and used to spend money on clothes and CDs, but I hardly buy anything now except necessary things. Everything I bought and saved disappeared in seconds. I’m so afraid to see that happen again”

    “Even a year after, I still dream about the tsunami every month.”

    Akiyo Hirayama, who was rescued by a helicopter the morning after the tsunami hit, thought that she would die on the roof of the car, where she huddled overnight in freezing temperatures and snow. She was reunited with her husband at the hospital after her rescue.

    “For several months, I was too afraid to either go outside or to stay alone in the house," she said. "I was crying a lot. People kept saying ‘ganbaro’ (stay strong) but I didn't know what to do.”

    “Since the disaster, my husband has been working hard to revive the community. I was afraid to stay in the same area but I trust him and have to follow him. Although I am still nervous, there is no other choice but stay here.”

    The land where the Hirayamas' house used to stand does not have rebuilding restrictions, though the breakwaters and trees are gone, leaving the area exposed. It is unclear when the breakwaters will be rebuilt.

    After Akiyo was rescued, she stayed with her sister. Jun, who drifted close enough to land to make it to shore after a frigid night spent clinging to the floating tire, was reunited with his grandparents a couple of weeks later.

    “Being able to see his Seijin-shiki (coming of age ceremony) was the best thing that happened in my life after the tsunami," said Akiyo Hirayama. "I was crying again but that time for joy.”

    The younger Hirayama is back in college now and slowly resumed working as a DJ. “Right after the tsunami, I didn’t think I would be able to go back to perform as a DJ," he said.  "But at the same time I realized how important the music is to my life. I cried when I went back to the club for first time after the tsunami. The audience was warm and very supportive. It was great.”

    “Survivors are going through tough recovery time and some people may think it’s not the time for recreation, but to me, the music is something to live for. Because of the disaster, I feel like putting more energy and doing my best music ever. It’s like the second chapter of my life just began.”

     

    Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.

    Buddhist tombstones stand in the empty land which was once a crowded residential area in Sendai, Feb 18, 2012.

  • Oyster farmers rebuild livelihoods in tsunami-devastated Japanese town

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    Masashi Shirano, right, chief of aqua farming at the Fishery Cooperative Association of Yamada, talks with a colleague in a warehouse in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, on Feb. 15, 2012.

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    Masashi Shirano, center, and his son Takashi, right, speed to another farming raft as they harvest oysters off Yamada.

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    Rafts for oyster farming dotted around Yamada Bay.

    770 residents of the Japanese port of Yamada died or remain missing as a result of the tsunami just under a year ago, the European Pressphoto Agency reports. The main industry in the town, aquafarming, was devastated, with many farmers losing their boats, farming rafts and fishery workshops as well as their homes.

    But all hope is not lost. The remaining oyster farmers decided to work together, pool resources and rebuild their business as a cooperative. They were fortunate that some young oysters had survived the tsunami, which meant they could produce their first harvest in November, eight months after the disaster. 

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    52-year-old Masahi Shirano, head of the cooperative, says he would have given up the trade if it wasn't for his son, Takashi, who works alongside him. The pair start their working day three hours before sunrise with the arduous task of shelling oysters harvested the previous day. Others are at work building new farming rafts. 

    Masahi says he considers himself lucky. "If my son gave up, I would give up the fishery business," he says.

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    Oysters are shelled.

    Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

    Aqua farmers warm themselves by a fire during a break as they shell oysters.

     

  • Returning to the scene nearly a year later, where a young mother searched for her son after the tsunami

    Tadashi Okubo / Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters, file

    Yuko Sugimoto looks at the damage caused by a tsunami and an earthquake in Ishimaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, after the magnitude 9 earthquake struck the area March 13, 2011.

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Yuko Sugimoto and her son Raito stand at the same place she stood on March 13, 2011 after the area was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture in northern Japan, on Feb. 22.

    Reuters reports --   The young Japanese woman clutches a beige blanket tight around her shoulders as she stares into the distance. Behind her hulks twisted metal and splintered wood left by the tsunami that devastated Ishinomaki, her hometown.

    The photograph, taken by Tadashi Okubo at the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, was picked up by Reuters and other agencies around the world, becoming an iconic image of the March 11 disaster that killed 20,000 people.

    The woman's name is Yuko Sugimoto. She is now 29 years old.

    Hiroaki Tsuda via Reuters, file

    Children and teachers from Ishinomaki Mizuho No.2 kindergarten take shelter on the roof of their school during the tsunami following Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Ishinomaki, northern Japan in this photo taken by head teacher Hiroaki Tsuda with his mobile phone on March 11, 2011.

    When the photo was taken, around 7 a.m. on March 13, she was looking in the direction of her son Raito's kindergarten, which was partly submerged and surrounded by piles of debris. Nearly two days after the quake she had yet to find the four-year-old.

    "At that point, I thought there was only about a 50 percent chance he was alive," she recalled recently.

    Reunited with her husband the next day, the two began making the rounds of evacuation centers -- first by car, then by bicycle as fuel ran out. Her husband found a boat and paddled his way towards the kindergarten, but found no one there.

    It wasn't until the next day that the couple heard that their son and other children had been rescued by the military from the roof of the kindergarten the morning after the tsunami.

    "When I saw Raito in the corner of a room, the next moment I was weeping so hard I couldn't see anything," Sugimoto said.

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Yuko Sugimoto and her son Raito pray on Feb. 22 , at the site where their pet dog was buried in the yard of their house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

    She hugged him and checked his hands, his feet, every bit of his body. She even checked his smell, to be certain it really was him. Holding him tight, she said "Thank goodness, thank goodness," over and over.

    Nearly a year later, Sugimoto stood in the same place, embracing her son and smiling. Behind her, the gently sloping road was clean, with cars and trucks stopped at a traffic light.

    Her smile suggests that her life is back on track, but that is not true. Though the debris was cleared much more quickly than she expected, it will take some time for Sugimoto and her family to get on with their lives.

    Read the full story.

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Yuko Sugimoto and her son Raito walk down the staircase of Ishinomaki Mizuho No.2 kindergarten where Raito survived the earthquake and tsunami last year by evacuating to the rooftop in Ishinomaki, northern Japan, on Feb. 22.

  • Family photos lost in Japan tsunami debris are slowly reunited with survivors

    A tsunami victim looks through albums for her photographs on Monday.

    By Reuters

    OFUNATO, Japan -- In a large, bright room not far from the ocean that raged through this coastal Japanese city nearly a year ago, a handful of people with magnifying glasses pore over boxes of photographs of friends or loved ones.

    The massive March 11 tsunami that leveled buildings and flattened towns along a wide swathe of northern Japan, including Ofunato, also took a more subtle toll, with hundreds of thousands of photographs lost to the churning waters.

    But now these memories are slowly making their way back to their owners, thanks to the painstaking efforts of a team that cleans them of mud, dirt and oil.

    "I got one photo blown up, and I was so thankful for that. I put it in a frame, and it brought tears to my eyes," said 77-year-old resident Yoshiko Jindai, looking through boxes of photographs.

    Toru Hanai / Reuters

    Recovered photographs are hung to dry after cleaning.

    Ofunato has enlisted a team of seven part-time staffers to help sort though the over 350,000 photos that have accumulated after being brought in by police, firefighters, rescue workers and average citizens who were looking through the rubble.

    In charge of cleaning and restoring the photos is paper conservator Satoko Kinno, who said her job is the second stage in the marathon of returning the photos to their owners after they are found.

    In the immediate aftermath of a monstrous earthquake that triggered a tsunami, fires, and nuclear power plant warnings, Dateline NBC reports on the current state of Japan and its people.

    Zen priest battles 'invisible demons' of radiation

    "I try to remember that people found these photos in the midst of rubble, and that I have to take the baton from them. So that's where I get my motivation," Kinno said.

    The photos are frozen once found to prevent bacteria and mold from growing on them until they can be properly cleaned and packed for display.

    The facility holds the photos in its industrial-sized freezer bins until they can be dealt with. Once cleaned, they are packed into photo albums and taken around to temporary housing complexes in the hopes of finding their owners.

    Other people choose to sort through boxes of photos themselves for hours on end, looking for snapshots of their lives thought lost to the forces of nature.

    Seven months after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, debris from the disaster was tracked slowly moving across the Pacific Ocean toward the U.S. NBC News' Kate Snow reports.

    Some laugh and chat as they search, as if at a casual social occasion. Others grab the books and flip through quickly, almost desperately.

    But even those who don't find anything are grateful for the chance to sort through albums filled with thousands of photos of children, graduations and even scenery of areas struck by the tsunami, now devastated. "I have some photos and videos at my home, but it's still very nice of them to do this," said 79-year-old Kimiko Tanaka.

    If somebody finds photos that might belong to another person, a member of Kinno's team will make the rounds of temporary housing to take the memories back to them.

    Toru Hanai / Reuters

    Tsunami victims look through albums for their photographs.

    Report: Japan withheld scary nuclear scenario

    Thousands have made their way back to grateful owners, but many thousands more remain unclaimed -- or still frozen.

    Kinno vows to continue until the last photo goes home.

    "I've really started to realize the depth and meaning that each and every photo has to it, and as such I want to do what I can to return as many photos as I can," she added.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

     

  • Zen monk fights radiation in Japan

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Koyu Abe gives instructions to volunteers during a radiation cleansing event hosted by himself at an elementary school in Fukushima, Japan on Feb. 5, 2012.

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Volunteer workers clean inside ditches during a radiation cleansing event hosted by Zen priest Koyu Abe at an elementary school in Fukushima,

    Slideshow: Zen monk fights radiation in Japan

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    A Buddhist priest in Fukushima works to clean up radioactive

    Launch slideshow

    Reuters reports: Last summer, Zen monk Koyu Abe grew and distributed sunflowers and other plants, such as field mustard and amaranthus, in an effort to lighten the impact of the radiation and cheer local residents of Japan's Fukushima city. Now he is trading his ceremonial robes for a protective mask, working with volunteers to track down lingering pockets of radiation and cleaning them up.

    "The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami," Abe said.

    "You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really, radiation is floating through the area. It's hard for those hit by the tsunami, but it's hard to live here too."

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Koyu Abe prepares for a workshop to inform local residents on how to deal with radioactive contamination at his study room.

    Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

    Hisashi Abe, 3, plays inside his grandparents' house near Joenji temple in Fukushima, Japan. Abe has been kept inside most of his time since last March due to fear of radiation.

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