Japan

On March 11, 2011 an 8.9 earthquake hit the surface of Tohoku, Japan. The earthquake caused an extremely harmful tsunami with waves up to 97 ft. tall. They tsunami hit Japan just minutes after the earthquake. The tsunami waves went as far into land as 6 miles. The Japanese police agency has announced that there were 11,532 deaths, 2,873 people injured, and 16,441 people still missing. 

“In the 65 years after the end of World War ll, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan,” said the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The earthquake moved portions of northeast Japan by as much as 7.9 ft. closer to North America. According to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the earthquake shifted the Earth's axis by 9.8 in. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 470 square kilometers in Japan.

Some reports say that as many as 100,000 children have been uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. The earthquake caused a large number of displaced people. The number of the evacuees has once passed 300,000.

Some earthquake survivors died in the shelters or in the process of evacuation. Many shelters struggle to feed evacuees and are not medically sufficiently equipped. Fuel shortages hampered relief actions. In the first week after the earthquake, supplies of food, water, and medicine had been held up because of a fuel shortage and the weather condition. Food was limited for some unevacuated people, and as of late March, some were given one meal a day. There is a need for temporary housing, as the Japanese government are trying to remove evacuees from large shelters, where there have been reports of poor sanitary conditions. As of late March, 8 800 temporary units were planned in Iwate, 10 000 in Miyagi, and 19 000 in Fukushima.

Some analysts are predicting that the total recovery costs could reach $122 billion. The northern Tōhoku region, which was most affected, accounts for about 8% of the country's gross domestic product, with factories that manufacture products such as cars and beer, as well as energy infrastructure. It includes the northern Miyagi prefecture, where Sendai is located, about 300 km 180 miles northeast of Tokyo. The Miyagi area includes manufacturing and industrial zones with chemical and electronics plants. It is estimated that Miyagi accounts for 1.7% of Japan's gross domestic product.

An 8.9 magnitude is very big, and the U.S. Geological Survey stated that this was the fifth biggest earthquake in the world, and the biggest from the history of Japan. The earthquake caused a tsunami, and the reason for that was the fact that the seafloor from the fault was forced to move vertically all of a sudden because of the subduction. Japan is situated near the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is the most active earthquake belt in the world. This is the reason why the country and the region are often hit by earthquakes and by tsunamis. 

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a horrible tragedy. Many people were killed in the earthquake and tsunami. It was a horrible thing but it was out of our hand to stop it from happening. Nature comes in an interesting way. If there was a way we could stop this horrible tragedy from happening, we would have. Nature does what nature wants to. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we deal with what does happen to us. I think the U.S should help Japan in any way possible.