On 11 March, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 70 kilometers off the Tohoku coast, in northeastern Japan. The quake triggered a tsunami that swept inland, destroying buildings, crippling infrastructure, and resulting in the displacement of more than 340,000 people.

Fisherman Yutaka Watanabe sits on the roof of a destroyed house, while looking for missing family members.

Chieko Matsukawa holds up her daughter’s graduation certificate, which she salvaged from the ruins of their home in Higashimatsushima.

A wrecked train balances over a cemetery in Onagawa.

Hira Noda (70) collects salvageable items, in her village, which has been devastated by the tsunami.

A man looks for family photos in boxes of personal belongings recovered from the debris left by the tsunami, in a gymnasium, on 18 April.

Illuminated by car headlights, tsunami survivor Tadao Kamei (left) and a friend write ‘Ganbaro!’ (‘Hang in there!’) on a billboard in Ishinomaki.

Buddhist nun Jikou Yoshida prays amidst tsunami devastation, on 12 April.

A month after the tsunami, two-year-old Ayaka prays, together with other family members, for her grandmother and great-grandmother, at the spot where they used to live.

Hideo Kudo stands with his son Nagisa at the place where his missing father was last seen on 27 March.

Residents of Kesennuma take an outdoor bath among the ruins of their city.

Cherry blossoms cover a tree standing among tsunami devastation in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan.

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