The Atlantic

May 9, 2011

Japan Earthquake: Two Months Later

Two months ago this week, on March 11, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. As of today, nearly 15,000 deaths have been confirmed, and more than 10,000 remain listed as missing. In some coastal communities, where the ground has sunk lower than the high tide mark, residents are still adjusting to twice-daily flooding. Many thousands still reside in temporary shelters because their homes were either destroyed or lie within the exclusion zone around the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Now that tourism season has arrived, Japan — especially Fukushima prefecture — is finding itself hit by yet another disaster: visits to the country have dropped by 50 percent.

See more images at In Focus
[Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images]

Two months ago this week, on March 11, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. As of today, nearly 15,000 deaths have been confirmed, and more than 10,000 remain listed as missing. In some coastal communities, where the ground has sunk lower than the high tide mark, residents are still adjusting to twice-daily flooding. Many thousands still reside in temporary shelters because their homes were either destroyed or lie within the exclusion zone around the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Now that tourism season has arrived, Japan — especially Fukushima prefecture — is finding itself hit by yet another disaster: visits to the country have dropped by 50 percent.

See more images at In Focus

[Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images]

(Source: The Atlantic)

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