On this day: Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami - March 11, 2011
- Tony Boccia
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
On this day in 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean roughly 80 miles east of Miyagi, Japan. The earthquake, the strongest in recorded Japanese history, set off a series of tsunamis that killed 18,000 throughout the northeast coast of the country. Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had all but a hundred or so of the casualties. The tsunami that struck Fukushima knocked the power out in the Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which led to a partial meltdown.
On 11 March, 2011, my wife and infant son were in Tokyo. They were evacuated from the high-rise where they were meeting my mother in law for lunch, and eventually made their way home. My wife still cannot forget the feeling of the earthquake, and she was some 230 miles away from the epicenter. All things considered, their evening was significantly more comfortable than those in the disaster area, where snow was falling on areas filled with wreckage, and the eerie silence of a one-busy area destroyed by waves nearly 135 feet high.
I was on Guam, two days away from returning home after a month-long training detachment. We were just getting off work at Andersen AFB when the tsunami hit, and we weren't allowed down into Tumon Bay to get to our hotel until nearly 10 PM, when the Tsunami warning was lifted. At that point, I did not know if my wife and son were alive or dead; I had absolutely no frame of reference when it came to earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. Once we got back to the hotel and they turned the power on, I was able to call my wife and get some sleep.
Within a week, the rest of CVW-5, excepting the helo squadrons and a unit that was stateside, shifted to Guam. We didn't know how long we'd be there, or if we'd be going back to Japan. The ships that could get out of Yokosuka, did so, including the USS George Washington (CVN-73), which ran to Sasebo. My wife and son were on the first aircraft out of Atsugi, evacuated under a voluntary non-combatant evacuation order; we had no idea if they'd be back, and they didn't return for two months. It was a rough period away from my family, but looking back we were the luckiest of the people affected by this awful tragedy. More than 2,550 people are still listed as missing.
You can find memorials and monuments to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, and the scars of it, here. There cultural impacts of this disaster are some of the most long-lasting. Here's some links to help you learn some about these issues.
All photos posted here are courtesy of the Japan Times, told much more impactfully than my own poor attempt to describe the tragedy.
Hug your loved ones today.
All my best,
Tony