41 structures preserved as remains of 2011 Disasters in Japan

March 4, 2018

Tokyo- At least 41 structures have been preserved in three northeastern Japan prefectures as the remains of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, a Jiji Press tally showed.

The structurers, located in 23 municipalities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, have been kept in an effort to pass on the memories of the disasters to future generations.

The number of such structures stands at 16 in Iwate, 13 in Miyagi and 12 in Fukushima. By municipality, Rikuzentakata, Iwate, has the largest number, at five.

These structures are mostly public facilities, including school buildings, coastal levees, police boxes, police cars, municipal office buildings, pedestrian bridges and public housing.

There are some private facilities, including a hotel and part of a railway station, that have been preserved using public money.

The city government of Kamaishi, Iwate, dismantled a damaged disaster control center but pieces of its walls and clocks have been kept aside. They will be in display at a memorial facility set to be completed next year.

In Otsuchi, Iwate, a municipal ordinance was enacted to collect funds for a project to replicate a sightseeing boat that was swept onto the roof of a hotel by the tsunami and was later removed.

In Futaba, Fukushima, where access to most of its areas is still restricted following the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the town government last November started surveying damage to buildings.

The town government of neighboring Okuma has been pushing ahead with a project to take photos and videos of facilities where residents gathered at the time of the disasters and make models of them.

The move comes as buildings are set to be demolished in an area where a radioactive waste storage facility is scheduled to be built. A municipal school in the area, where dictionaries, bags and other goods have been left scattered in classrooms since the disasters, will be kept without being demolished. Jiji Press