2012 Photo Contest, People in the News, 1st prize

Tsunami

Photographer

Yasuyoshi Chiba

Agence France-Presse

11 April, 2011

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.

About the photographer

Yasuyoshi Chiba

Yasuyoshi Chiba is Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) Chief Photographer for East Africa and Indian Ocean, currently based in Nairobi, Kenya.    After studying phot...

Background story

Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, Japan

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. 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 over an area of some 500 square kilometers, destroying buildings, crippling infrastructure, and resulting in the displacement of more than 340,000 people. The earthquake was the most powerful ever to hit Japan, and one of the most forceful documented in the world. Flooding and damage to transport connections, power stations, and other vital facilities severely hindered recovery operations.

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