The memorial day of Tohoku earthquake

On 11 March 2011, at 14:46 JST, a Mw 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km east of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approximately six minutes, causing a tsunami. It is sometimes known in Japan as the "Great East Japan Earthquake"

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900.
The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters.
In the Sendai area, tsunami traveled at 700 km/h and up to 10 km inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away.
The snowfall which accompanied the tsunami and the freezing temperature hindered rescue works greatly; for instance, Ishinomaki, the city with most deaths, was 0 °C as the tsunami hit. The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, and 2,553 people missing, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.

The tsunami caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, primarily the meltdowns of three of its reactors, the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators ran out of fuel. The loss of electrical power halted cooling systems, causing heat to build up. The heat build-up caused the generation of hydrogen gas. Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the upper refueling hall and eventually exploded causing the refueling hall's blast panels to be forcefully ejected from the structure. Residents within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.

Thirteen years have passed since the earthquake, but it is said that reconstruction in the affected areas is still in progress. The government has created the Reconstruction Agency and is spending a huge amount of money on reconstruction efforts, but more than 30,000 people are still unable to return to their hometowns.
Since then, Japan has been hit by a series of earthquakes in various parts of the country. In Japan, people are urged to always be prepared for disasters that may strike at any time.