Protecting Sanriku – Rikuzentakata (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))

Japan: The Basics contains many photographs (all taken by me) to help with the discussions in the book. I have previously done individual posts on each of the photos that were in the first edition that are not in the second edition (a list of all the photographs in the first edition can be found here). I am now doing posts on all of the photos that appear in the second edition of Japan: The Basics using the tag Photo in Japan: The Basics 2 (all of the photographs can be found here). I’ve already done a series of posts on all the photos that appear in both editions of the book, and a series of posts on those photos where there was an equivalent picture in the first edition but which has been updated for the second edition. This is the next post in a series of posts about those photos which are new to Japan: The Basics.

The following picture is Figure 8.1d in the second edition of Japan: The Basics.

A flat, open area by a river. Despite being an area where one would expect to see buildings, there are hardly any. To the right is a large banked wall, part of which is covered by grass and part of which is covered by concrete.

The photo is of the sea wall and tsunami memorial area in Rikuzentakata. This was the last photo that I took on a day that started off in Tokyo, then a shinkansen to Kitakami, from where I hired a car and drove to Kamaishi, Ofunato, and Rikuzentakata. Photos of the visits to Kamaishi and Ofunato also feature in Japan: The Basics.

You can see more about when I took the photo in a Highlight on Instagram.

Given my interest in memorialisation, stemming from the research I have done about the JL123 crash, I felt it was time, in 2023, to go to the area that was impacted by the events of 11 March 2011 (the Great East Japan Earthquake or ‘3/11’) for the first time. I had included some discussion of 3/11 in the first edition of the book, but having visited the area, which included meeting officials in Kamaishi city hall, and going to the museums in Kamaishi and Rikuzentakata, in 2023, I significantly changed the text.

In some ways the photo above is not perfect – I couldn’t find a way to get everything I wanted in one shot while making sure all the elements were easy to see. You can clearly see the main sea defences that have been built – which is the focus of the discussion in the section of Japan: The Basics where the photo is introduced. I also think that the photo captures some of the feeling of wide open expanse where there used to be buildings, but which has now been largely turned over to farmland (with the city’s building now being located on the hillsides around the flat area in the photo), as well as the museum. The photo does also include one of the destroyed buildings that has been left as a memorial and, next to it, the ‘miracle tree’ memorial (a real tree initially survived the tsunami, but after it died a decision was made to replace it with a memorial that looks like it) – but these are harder to see. So I will include better pictures of them here, together with some other photos that I took in Rikuzentakata.