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from Photographers Blog:
Seaside nuclear power
Omaezaki, Japan
By Toru Hanai
Chubu Electric Power Co.'s Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Japan is located at water level next to a beach. It is also widely reported to be one of the world's most dangerous nuclear plants as it sits close to a major fault line - not unlike the one that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
I had an offer of an exclusive tour of Chubu Nuclear Power Station where an 18-meter (60 ft) high and 1.6 km (1 mile) long tsunami defense wall has been built at a cost of $1.3 billion.
Being located beachside I immediately thought of basing the main photo for this trip on this famous “ukiyoe” print by the artist Hokusai:
-The Great Wave off Kanagawa-
Hokusai (1760-1849) was a ukiyoe painter and printmaker during the Edo period. I guess that many people have seen this ukiyoe print.
from Photographers Blog:
Destination Fukushima: Two years on
Fukushima, Japan
By Issei Kato
“Let’s put our hearts together and keep going, Fukushima!” reads a large banner that hangs across a large steel structure that stands next to the No. 4 reactor building at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The plant was overwhelmed by a massive tsunami and earthquake two years ago, triggering hydrogen explosions and a nuclear meltdown.
from Photographers Blog:
Revisiting the ghosts of Aceh
By Beawiharta
I remember well the 2004 tsunami in Aceh. I stayed for more than six weeks in Banda Aceh and then flew back to Jakarta to recover. In Jakarta, I cried everywhere when nobody was around me; at the office, at home, on the street, I was always crying. The situation was embarrassing, but I couldn’t stop the tears. They were automatic.
My brain couldn't run from the images that I took of the tsunami aftermath. The counselor told me that I must go back to Aceh to take different pictures; positive pictures. Like people building their houses or shop stalls, children going back to school or singing songs happily.
from Full Focus:
Images of March
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Japan marked the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Voting took place in Myanmar in what was hailed as a step towards democratic change. A shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse rocked France.
from Photographers Blog:
Empty spaces
By Carlos Barria
A year ago I went to Japan to cover the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the country's northern coast.
At the time I was shocked by the scale of the destruction and felt I needed to show the magnitude of the disaster. I tried to fill my pictures with as many elements as possible. I even took a series of panoramic-format photographs, for a wider view.
from Photographers Blog:
The place that adults fear
By Toru Hanai
March 11 is here again in Japan.
A year after the tsunami devastated Higashi Matsushima city in Miyagi, seven-year-old Wakana Kumagai visited the grave of her father Kazuyuki with her mother Yoshiko, brother Koki, and her grandparents.
I first met Wakana last April, just weeks after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and huge tsunami devastated Japan’s northeast Pacific coast. The school year begins in April here in Japan, and Wakana was carrying her new, shiny red school backpack as she visited her father at a temporary graveyard that housed those who died from the tsunami. She gracefully bowed to her dad, showing off her new bag and her dress she wore for the first grader’s ceremony as if she were at a ball, and told him that she just attended her school for the first time. Her graceful bow struck my heart.
from Photographers Blog:
Clinging to life in a tsunami zone
By Toru Hanai
Choufuku Ishisone of Miyako, Iwate prefecture, owns a convenience store.
On March 11, 2011, Ishisone was driving to see his store after checking on his house following the earthquake and saw a black tsunami wave roar over a seawall. He made a U-turn, but the tsunami struck him from multiple directions, sending his car afloat. The engine stopped. He jumped out of the car in a hurry but lost his footing in the tsunami and was swallowed up in the thick, black water.
He managed to avoid cars, ships and other debris carried by the tsunami but the water level continued to rise steadily. Grabbing onto a power line pole as he was swept past, he scrambled up so desperately that he was about five meters high before he knew it.
from Photographers Blog:
One year from that day
By Toru Hanai
It will soon be one year from that day - March 11, 2011.
Greetings among friends who meet after a long absence begins with, "Where and what were you doing on March 11?"
On March 11, 2011, I was photographing Prime Minister Naoto Kan during a committee session at the Parliament building in Tokyo.
from Full Focus:
Tsunami: Before and after
The moment when the tsunami struck Japan and the same view today.
from Photographers Blog:
Healing power of photography
By Yuriko Nakao
The 3.11 Portrait Project brings smiles to the victims of the triple-whammy disaster through the power of the photograph
After the magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked Japan in March 11 last year, as a photographer for a newswire service, I had many chances to document reality, which was often depressing and shocking. However, at times, I would feel rewarded when my work brought positive results by inviting support and compassion from around the world to those who were suffering. However, still, the support was often not directed specifically to the person pictured in my shots, which often made me feel helpless.
