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1. Great bullet points with concise facts

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On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its recorded history.

Subjects

Earth Science, Oceanography, Geography, Physical Geography

On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its recorded history. The earthquake struck below the North Pacific, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, a northern part of the island of Honshu.

The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. A tsunami-Japanese for "harbor wave"-is a series of powerful waves caused by the displacement of a large body of water. Most tsunamis, like the one that formed off Tohoku, are triggered by underwater tectonic activity, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Tohoku tsunami produced waves up to 40 meters (132 feet) high, More than 450,000 people became homeless as a result of the tsunami. More than 15,500 people died. The tsunami also severely crippled the infrastructure of the country.

In addition to the thousands of destroyed homes, businesses, roads, and railways, the tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The Fukushima nuclear disaster released toxic, radioactive materials into the environment and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and businesses.

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National Geographic Society

Producer

National Geographic Society

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Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its recorded history.

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Case study: Tohoku, Japan - Earthquakes - CCEA - GCSE Geography Revision - CCEA - BBC Bitesize

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Discover how to measure the strength of an earthquake and revise their short and long term impacts. Includes a case study on Tohoku, Japan.

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Rashid Razaq, Peter Dominiczak, Benedict Moore-Bridger

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Japan earthquake survivor: 'There was a silence, like the world had

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Terrified survivors in a Japanese city devastated by the earthquake told today how they feared the "world had stopped" as they tried to scramble to safety.

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To highlight World Tsunami Day and the Universal Postal Union's own work in disaster risk reduction, the UN specialized agency for postal matters talked to Akihiro Nikaido, Postmaster of Ishinomaki Post Office about his experience on that tragic day.
Question 1: You were the Postmaster at the Ishinomaki Post Office at the time of the 2011 earthquake and its tsunami. Please tell me about your experience.
The March 11, 2011 earthquake, and the subsequent tsunami, brought enormous damage to Ishinomaki. I saw a boat, swept up by the tsunami that settled on top of a building. It was a sight I never would have thought possible.

In the Tohoku region, March is still very cold. After the earthquake, it snowed in Ishinomaki. With repeated aftershocks, and the town wrecked by the earthquake and tsunami, the residents were in a state of confusion, while trying to find refuge and dealing with the winter cold.

At that time, I was working at the Ishinomaki Post Office. Together with other employees, I was serving customers at the financial services counter.

The earthquake struck at 14:46 (Japanese Standard Time), shaking the building with tremendous force. I had never experienced such a furious tremor. My colleagues were thrown from one end of the room to the other. That is no exaggeration. The violence of the earthquake literally sent us flying.

Firmly fixed lockers fell over, and small fires broke out, although fortunately they were extinguished right away.

Part of the building's ceiling collapsed so I had the employees take refuge in the inner courtyard. I also directed those sales reps outside to return to the post office.

At around 15:30, since there was really no point in working and the staff was worried about their families and homes, I decided to let them leave early. It was when I stepped out of the post office that I saw the inky-looking tsunami surging in. It was 15:26 when the tsunami arrived in Ishinomaki.

I ran for my life, taking refuge in the nearby Nakasato Elementary School. A 1.5-meter tsunami had deluged the post office area, and with the flooding, we could no longer approach the post office.
Question 2: Ishinomaki City lost close to 4,000 people. In addition, according to the report from Ishinomaki City, the tsunami caused a flood of about one meter in the area around the post office. Many employees and customers suffered injury, and we can presume that the post office building and vehicles were also hit. Given all that, I think that restoring services must have been an incredibly difficult job. As postmaster, what kind of challenges did you face?
It was on the sixth day following the earthquake that the water around the post office receded. We had to wait for the water to be drained by a drainage pump vehicle.

The first floor of the post office was flooded, and the vehicles parked there were totally ruined.

I was also unable to approach to the post office, and for some time took shelter in the elementary school. Then, on March 17, I was finally able to go to the Tohoku regional office in Sendai. I borrowed a car from the regional office, and returned to Ishinomaki.

After returning to Ishinomaki, the regional office supported our efforts to resume services.

From March 19th we were able to partially begin deliveries using bicycles and motorbikes that had not been damaged in the tsunami. On the 22nd, 12 days after the earthquake, we were able to begin special handling and emergency payments at the Ishinomaki Post Office counters, for which we had numerous requests from customers.

In restoring services, we were able to receive the assistance of the Japan Post Group, which pulled together as a team. Also, by taking advantage of the logistical strength of Japan Post, we were able to install a portable power generator since electricity was not yet back online.

Toilets were another big problem. I think it was a major inconvenience placed on employees in a situation where there was neither electricity nor water. Everyone was grateful when we installed portable toilets.
Question 3: What kind of changes did the disaster bring to the local community and the operation of Japan Post?
The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami demonstrated the overwhelming power of nature. So many people lost their loved ones, properties and jobs. I think there were many people whose spirits were broken. In the middle of this, somehow, we made our way to what we have today, and that, I think, is because people were encouraged to help one another.

The employees of Japan Post, having been spurred on by this disaster, have, I think, been able to gain a new appreciation of the importance of their own jobs.

2011 was just a few years after privatization. It seems that many employees were seriously reconsidering the ability of Japan Post to still serve the public as it did before the privatization. However, I think that, due to this disaster, people gained an understanding of the important role played by Japan in the social infrastructure; namely, the postal, financial, and insurance areas.

The resumption of service counters made news coverage on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and commercial broadcasters throughout the nation. It was good news for people anticipating the post office's restart of operations. With financial services in particular, the residents of Ishinomaki were very happy with the news because the branches of other financial institutions were closed for three months after the earthquake.
Question 4: For postal employees outside Japan, please let us know if you have any advice about what kind of preparations should be made to handle a big natural disaster.
As someone who has experience with a disaster, what I would like to convey to postal employees around the world is to place foremost importance on your own life. People tend to think that it cannot happen to me, but that is not true. With this tsunami as well, there were many people who lost their lives. They had once taken shelter, but went home out of concern for their property and were never seen again.

It is certain that, when we face natural disasters, we find that we are powerless. However, even though we are powerless, we have the power to rebuild communities and society, provided that we are alive. Each of us is priceless. If you get caught up in a disaster all you should do is survive. Do not bring anything, just run away immediately.

Always be prepared for natural disasters. Simulations and training are important. Just making an emergency plan is not enough. Verify and improve the plan regularly.

Please take care of your family. Your family will ultimately be the ones who become your support. Discuss with your family to determine how to contact each other and fix locations to meet in times of disaster.

Finally, do not give up. People tend to despair at the time of big natural disasters because they feel that they are powerless and anything they do is meaningless against the overwhelming power of Nature. But if you don't give up, you will recover. I am sure of that.

Things that are lost never come back, but I hope people will get over the tragedy and move forward with recovering. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

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Even the darkest night ends: An interview with Akihiro Nikaido, Postmaster of Ishinomaki Post Office, about the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

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To highlight WTAD, UPU talks with Akihiro Nikaido, Postmaster of Ishinomaki Post Office, about his experience on the day of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

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Casualties and property damage

Initial reports of casualties following the tsunami put the death toll in the hundreds, with hundreds more missing. The numbers in both categories increased dramatically in the following days as the extent of the devastation-especially in coastal areas-became known and rescue operations got under way. Within two weeks of the disaster, the Japanese government's official count of deaths had exceeded 10,000; more than one and a half times that number were still listed as missing and presumed dead. By then it was evident that the earthquake and tsunami constituted one of the deadliest natural disasters in Japanese history, rivaling the major earthquake and tsunami that had occurred off the coast of Iwate prefecture in June 1896. As the search for victims continued, the official count of those confirmed dead or still missing rose to about 28,500. However, as more people thought to be missing were found to be alive, that figure began to drop; by the end of 2011 it had been reduced to some 19,300.

Coastal cities and towns as well as vast areas of farmland in the tsunami's path were inundated by swirling waters that swept enormous quantities of houses, boats, cars, trucks, and other debris along with them. As the extent of the destruction became known, it became clear how many thousands of people were missing-including, in some cases, half or more of a locality's population. Among those who initially were unaccounted for were people on a ship that was washed away by the tsunami and passengers on several trains reported as missing in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. The ship was later found (and the people on board rescued), and all trains were located as well.

Ultimately, the official total for the number of those confirmed dead or listed as missing from the disaster was about 18,500, although other estimates gave a final toll of at least 20,000. Of those, fewer than 100 were from prefectures other than Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. Miyagi prefecture suffered the greatest losses, with some 10,800 killed or missing and another 4,100 injured. The great majority of those killed overall were drowning victims of the tsunami waves. In addition, more than half of the victims were age 65 years or older.

Although nearly all of the deaths and much of the destruction was caused by the tsunami waves along Japan's Pacific coastline, the earthquake was responsible for considerable damage over a wide area. Notable were fires in several cities, including a petrochemical plant in Sendai, a portion of the city of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, northeast of Sendai, and an oil refinery at Ichihara in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo. In Fukushima, Ibaraki, and Chiba prefectures thousands of homes were completely or partially destroyed by the temblor and aftershocks. Infrastructure also was heavily affected throughout eastern Tōhoku, as roads and rail lines were damaged, electric power was knocked out, and water and sewerage systems were disrupted. In Fukushima a dam burst close to the prefectural capital, Fukushima city.

Of significant concern following the main shock and tsunami was the status of several nuclear power stations in the Tōhoku region. The reactors at the three nuclear power plants closest to the quake's epicentre were shut down automatically following the temblor, which also cut the main power to those plants and their cooling systems. However, inundation by the tsunami waves damaged the backup generators at some of those plants, most notably at the Fukushima Daiichi ("Number One") plant, situated along the Pacific coast in northeastern Fukushima prefecture about 60 miles (100 km) south of Sendai. With power gone, the cooling systems failed in three reactors within the first few days of the disaster, and their cores subsequently overheated, leading to partial meltdowns of the fuel rods. (Some plant workers, however, attributed at least one partial meltdown to coolant-pipe bursts caused by the earthquake's ground vibrations.) Melted material fell to the bottom of the containment vessels in reactors 1 and 2 and burned sizable holes through the floor of each vessel, which partially exposed the nuclear material in the cores. Explosions resulting from the buildup of pressurized hydrogen gas in the outer containment buildings enclosing reactors 1, 2, and 3, along with a fire touched off by rising temperatures in spent fuel rods stored in reactor 4, led to the release of significant levels of radiation from the facility in the days and weeks following the earthquake. Workers sought to cool and stabilize the damaged reactors by pumping seawater and boric acid into them.

Because of concerns over possible radiation exposure, Japanese officials established an 18-mile (30-km) no-fly zone around the facility, and an area of 12.5 miles (20 km) around the plant was evacuated. The evacuation zone was later extended to the 18-mile no-fly radius, within which residents were asked to leave or remain indoors. The appearance of increased levels of radiation in some local food and water supplies prompted officials in Japan and overseas to issue warnings about their consumption. At the end of March, seawater near the Daiichi facility was discovered to have been contaminated with high levels of radioactive iodine-131. The contamination stemmed from the exposure of pumped-in seawater to radiation inside the facility; this water later leaked into the ocean through cracks in water-filled trenches and tunnels between the facility and the ocean.

In mid-April Japanese nuclear regulators elevated the severity level of the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi facility from 5 to 7-the highest level on the scale created by the International Atomic Energy Agency-placing the Fukushima accident in the same category as the Chernobyl accident, which had occurred in the Soviet Union in 1986. Radiation levels remained high in the evacuation zone, and it was thought that the area might be uninhabitable for decades. However, several months after the accident, government officials announced that radiation levels in five towns located just beyond the original 12.5-mile evacuation zone had declined enough that they could allow residents to return to their homes. Although some people did come back, others stayed away, concerned about the amount of radioactive materials still in the soil. Attempts were made in several of those areas to remove contaminated soil. In December 2011 Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko declared the Fukushima Daiichi facility stable after the cold shutdown of its reactors had been completed.

In the years following the accident, numerous leaks at the facility occurred at the site where contaminated reactor cooling water was stored. A significant leak occurred in August 2013 that was severe enough to prompt Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority to classify it as a level-3 nuclear incident.

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Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 - Aftermath, Recovery, Rebuilding

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Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 - Aftermath, Recovery, Rebuilding: The number of those confirmed dead or listed as missing was about 18,500. Most of those killed were drowning victims of the tsunami waves. Miyagi prefecture suffered the greatest losses. The tsunami waves damaged the backup generators at some of the nuclear plants, most notably at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

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ALPS Treated Water Marine Monitoring Information｜Ministry of the Environment

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Radiation monitoring is important when dealing with a nuclear or radiological emergency. Experts need to answer key questions. Has there been a release of radioactive material? If so, what types and amounts of radionuclides have been released? How can people and the environment be protected in the most effective way?

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Plan your trip and travel to Fukushima with peace of mind by understanding the latest situation in the eastern parts of Fukushima, affected by the 2011 earthquake. Learn about how Fukushima as a whole has recovered over time and is thriving as a tourism destination in its own right.

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Fukushima accident, accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi ("Number One") plant in northern Japan, the second worst nuclear accident (after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986) in the history of nuclear power generation. The site is on Japan's Pacific coast, in northeastern Fukushima prefecture about 100 km (60 miles) south of Sendai. The facility, operated by the Tokyo Electric and Power Company (TEPCO), was made up of six boiling-water reactors constructed between 1971 and 1979. At the time of the accident, only reactors 1-3 were operational, and reactor 4 served as temporary storage for spent fuel rods.

TEPCO officials reported that tsunami waves generated by the main shock of the Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011, damaged the backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Although all three of the reactors that were operating were successfully shut down, the loss of power caused cooling systems to fail in each of them within the first few days of the disaster. Rising residual heat within each reactor's core caused the fuel rods in reactors 1, 2, and 3 to overheat and partially melt down, leading at times to the release of radiation. Melted material fell to the bottom of the containment vessels in reactors 1 and 2 and bored sizable holes in the floor of each vessel-a fact that emerged in late May. Those holes partially exposed the nuclear material in the cores. Explosions resulting from the buildup of pressurized hydrogen gas occurred in the outer containment buildings enclosing reactors 1 and 3 on March 12 and March 14, respectively. Workers sought to cool and stabilize the three cores by pumping seawater and boric acid into them. Because of concerns over possible radiation exposure, government officials established a 30-km (18-mile) no-fly zone around the facility, and a land area of 20-km (12.5-mile) radius around the plant-which covered nearly 600 square km (approximately 232 square miles)-was evacuated.

A third explosion occurred on March 15 in the building surrounding reactor 2. At that time the explosion was thought to have damaged the containment vessel housing the fuel rods. (In actuality, the explosion punched a second hole in the containment vessel; the first hole had been created earlier by melted nuclear material that passed through the bottom of the vessel.) In response, government officials designated a wider zone, extending to a radius of 30 km around the plant, within which residents were asked to remain indoors. The explosion, along with a fire touched off by rising temperatures in spent fuel rods stored in reactor 4, led to the release of higher levels of radiation from the plant.

In the days that followed, some 47,000 residents left their homes, many people in areas adjacent to the 20-km evacuation warning zone also prepared to leave, and workers at the plant made several attempts to cool the reactors using truck-mounted water cannons and water dropped from helicopters. Those efforts met with some success, which temporarily slowed the release of radiation; however, they were suspended several times after rising steam or smoke signaled an increased risk of radiation exposure.

As workers continued their attempts to cool the reactors, the appearance of increased levels of radiation in some local food and water supplies prompted Japanese and international officials to issue warnings about their consumption. At the end of March, the evacuation zone was expanded to 30 km around the plant, and ocean water near the plant was discovered to have been contaminated with high levels of iodine-131, which resulted from leakage of radioactive water through cracks in trenches and tunnels between the plant and the ocean. On April 6 plant officials announced that those cracks had been sealed, and later that month workers began to pump the irradiated water to an on-site storage building until it could be properly treated.

On April 12 nuclear regulators elevated the severity level of the nuclear emergency from 5 to 7-the highest level on the scale created by the International Atomic Energy Agency-placing it in the same category as the Chernobyl accident, which had occurred in the Soviet Union in 1986. It was not until the middle of December 2011 that Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko declared the facility stable, after the cold shutdown of the reactors was completed.

As the fallout pattern became better understood, an additional corridor of land covering roughly 207 square km (80 square miles) and stretching away from the initial 20-km zone was also designated for evacuation in the months following the disaster. Months later, radiation levels remained high in the evacuation zone, and government officials remarked that the area might be uninhabitable for decades. However, they also announced that radiation levels had declined enough in some towns located just beyond the original 20-km evacuation warning zone that residents could return to their homes there. Although many areas located within the 20-km evacuation warning zone and the expanded zone (an area called the "difficult-to-return" zone) continued to remain off-limits due to high radiation levels, officials began to allow limited activities (business activities and visitation but no lodging) in other previously evacuated areas with moderately high radiation levels. Beginning in July 2013, evacuation orders were lifted in some areas characterized by lower levels of radiation both within and beyond the 20-km evacuation warning zone. By March 2017 all evacuation orders in the areas outside the difficult-to-return zone (which continued to sequester some 371 square km [about 143 square miles]) had been lifted. A 2016 study on the effects of the accident on fish and marine products showed that the contamination level had decreased dramatically over time, though the radioactivity of some species, especially sedentary rockfish, remained elevated within the exclusion zone.

A second, but smaller, nuclear accident took place in August 2013 when approximately 300 tonnes (330 tons) of irradiated water used in ongoing cooling operations in reactors 1, 2, and 3 was discharged into the landscape surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi facility. TEPCO officials reported that the leak was the result of an open valve in the short barrier wall that surrounded several of the tanks used in radioactive water storage. The leak was severe enough to prompt Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority to classify it as a level-3 nuclear incident.

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Fukushima accident | Summary, Date, Effects, & Facts

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Fukushima accident, disaster that occurred in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi ('Number One') nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast of northern Japan, which was caused by a severe earthquake and powerful series of tsunami waves and was the second worst nuclear power accident in history.