The Great East Japan Earthquake

Above, Godaido temple with the Matsushima Bay village
 in the background in 2006. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A year ago this coming Sunday, March 11, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami struck the northeastern areas of Japan's main island of Honshu. The quake struck at 14:46 hours (2:46 PM JST).

The quake was felt throughout Honshu. It even caused the tip of Tokyo Tower to bend. The damage in the Tohoku region was much worse.

According to Wikipedia's List of Earthquakes In Japan:

This megathrust earthquake's hypocenter was reported to be off the Oshika Peninsula, the east coast of Tohoku. It was the strongest to hit Japan and one of the top five largest earthquakes in the world since seismological record-keeping began. It was followed by a tsunami with waves of up to 10 m (33 ft). The disaster left thousands dead and inflicted extensive material damage to buildings and infrastructure that led to significant accidents at four major nuclear power stations.

(Over 19,000 were killed and scores of people are still missing.)

It was nighttime in the Los Angeles area and I was working the graveyard shift in Burbank. At around 11:15 PM, I received a call from one of my co-workers. He asked if I heard about the earthquake. At that time, I didn't. I immediately got off the phone and searched around the radio dial for news reports. They weren't hard to find.

The reports on the damage and casualties were constantly coming in. Over the course of the night, the news reports were getting worse. I contacted all my Japanese friends in the U.S. and in Japan to see if they and their families made it through okay. All did. I spent much of the early morning hours texting with the last promo model, Miki Hayashi, for The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan. Her family wasn't in the affected area and were fine.

Above, Haruo Nakajima and Miki Hayashi. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In the immediate days that followed, I monitored the Internet to see how badly damaged Sendai and Matsushima Bay were. I had been to both in 2006. Sendai's airport was hard hit by the tsunami. Matsushima Bay was spared catastropic damage by the tiny islets that dot the bay.


For several days, I searched around for any news about the Godaido temple at Matsushima Bay. Did it survive or was it destroyed? Then, on March 4, I saw a photo showing Godaido still standing on its rock. Why was I so concerned about Godaido? Call it sentimental. My dad was a MP briefly stationed in Sendai before being sent over to South Korea in 1951. He sent my mom a picture of him standing in uniform in front of the temple. In 2006, I visited Sendai and Matsushima Bay and had a photo taken at almost the same spot in front of Godaido as my dad's photo (right).

In the weeks following the earthquake, people from around the world came to Japan's aid with food, supplies, volunteers and money. I contributed through a set-up with Wells Fargo Bank. The sponsors of Haruo "Mr. Godzilla" Nakajima donated thousands of dollars from the sales of autographed photos of Nakajima at Monsterpalooza in Burbank, California. The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan was sent to Japan to assist.

Today, most of the rubble has been cleared, leaving barren areas where towns once thrived. It'll take years for a full recovery. The Japanese rolled up their sleeves and got right to work.

The quake, tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation problem caused a major drop in tourism to Japan. Much of it was fed by hysterical reporting by western media.

Today, the Japanese tourism industry is well on its way to a full recovery and they are optimistic that they may top 2010's record tourism levels this year. This blog has been "beating the drums" in support for Japan's tourism industry and will continue to do so.

Here's an interesting article on Matsushima Bay one year later.