On 11 March 2011, at 2.46pm (JST) a magnitude 9.0 Earthquake rocked the Touhoku region of Japan marking the beginning of a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Soon after, a Tsunami swept through coastal towns leaving 15000 people dead or missing, and triggering a Nuclear incident that is now known to exceed the Chernobyl disaster in severity.

A year on, the clean up is well underway and much of the debris has been removed but thousands of people still remain in recovery centres and ‘temporary’ shelters unable to return to their homes. However, Japanese people are resilient, and I know that in time and with the help of technology, and the international community, they will rebuild.

がんばって 日本