Tsunami destruction in Sendai. Photo credit: Robert De Vido, www.flickr.com/photos/bigocean/
As Japan approaches the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left more than 15,000 people dead, caused the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, and left millions homeless, The Atlantic offers up some images for thought.
The magazine’ s In Focus blog is running an interactive photo gallery containing images of the destruction immediately after the tsunami, and then, the same place several months later. “Photographers documented the many faces of this tragedy and have now returned to give us a look at the difference a year can make,” Alan Taylor, the blog’s curator, wrote.
And wow, what a difference. Japan was widely lauded at the time for its people’s calm handling of what was a horrible, incomprehensibly large tragedy; these images of a country pulling itself back together again speak to that deep well of strength that so awed Western journalists.
Today’s Scoped Out came to us from Gawker, we’re not ashamed to admit.
More on the March 11, 2011 tsunami
- Japan to re-open nuclear plants after Fukushima
- Japan struggles with reactors, death toll
- The economic earthquake in Japan
- Japan hit by massive earthquake, tsunami