"Passing down memories and lessons" to protect lives in the next disaster: Challenges at the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake

15,901 dead. 2,519 missing. The Great East Japan Earthquake, which claimed more than 22,000 lives including disaster-related deaths, was the worst natural disaster in postwar Japan. The accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant also occurred, and about 26,000 people are still living as evacuees today. On March 11, 15 years after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck, events were held in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures to mourn the victims in the vicinity of facilities that passed down the legacy of the disaster in the coastal areas. The families of the victims, residents of the affected areas, and those involved in passing down the lessons of the disaster, reaffirmed their regret for those whose lives were suddenly taken, and pledged to pass on their memories and lessons learned.

The grief of the affected communities has not faded. While the remnants of the earthquake tell us how powerful the disaster was, many people worry that the public is losing interest. They are concerned about whether activities to pass on these lessons to future generations will continue. One person involved in such activities said: "What matters is not just passing on the memories and lessons of the disaster but keeping in mind that they exist to protect lives when the next major earthquake and tsunami inevitably comes."

Many facilities to "learn from the tragedy of the Great East Japan Earthquake"

Since the disaster, many facilities and symbols dedicated to passing on the history of the earthquake have been built across the three affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. They are grouped into four categories, "earthquake remains," "memorial halls and exhibition facilities," "disaster memorial parks," and "stone monuments," with the total number greatly exceeding 300.

Kadonowaki Elementary School and Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, where students lost their lives, and the house foundations in the Arahama District of Sendai City, where many residents were swept away by the tsunami, are well-known earthquake remains that attract many visitors. Young people, including students on school excursions, have also visited such facilities as the Earthquake Reconstruction Museum in Yuriage, Natori City, and the Minamisanriku 311 Memorial in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture.

In Yuriage, a huge tsunami killed about 750 people, including 14 junior high school students. The Earthquake Reconstruction Museum was opened in May 2020 not only to pass on the memories and lessons of the earthquake, but also to raise awareness of the potential for another major earthquake to occur in the future. On March 11, marking 15 years since "that day," members of the baseball team of Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School, known as a "powerhouse school at the most prestigious national high school baseball tournament," arrived in two buses, accompanied by their teachers.

Realistic paintings conveying the devastation of Yuriage

Inside the hall, alongside a diorama recreating the Yuriage District as it looked before the disaster when houses were packed tightly together, and exhibits conveying the great tsunami, one large painting stood out: a realistic depiction of the devastation in Yuriage immediately after the disaster. Many visitors stopped and stared at the painting as if it were a large photograph covering the entire wall. It was painted by Shintaro Yada, an artist living in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, who was at the hall on this milestone day, 15 years on.

Yada completed and unveiled this large work in 2019, based on many photographs he had taken when he visited the area as a volunteer shortly after the disaster. Because the painting is so realistic, there were objections about displaying it inside the hall, and it seems it was only displayed relatively recently.

Toshinobu Takano, who volunteers at the hall explaining the disaster to visitors, is worried that the number of visitors has been declining since the hall opened, with the added impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "War can be prevented, but natural disasters cannot. So all we can do is pass on the lessons and help people develop awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation."

And as for Yada's realistic, large-scale work, he said, "There are no earthquake remains (buildings) in Yuriage despite such extensive damage. I want it to remain here forever to convey how severe the earthquake was."

"Wasurenagusa" recording and passing down the memories of bereaved families

There is an ongoing effort to keep talking with bereaved families, and to carefully record and pass on their painful memories.

This is the activity behind "A Record of the Mental Recovery Process of Disaster Bereaved Families: Wasurenagusa," led by Associate Professor Shin Nozaka of the Department of Regional Frontier, Faculty of Management and Economics, Aomori Public University, and others. "Wasurenagusa," a written record of the thoughts and experiences of bereaved families gathered through interviews, has already been published in five volumes, with further volumes planned.

On March 7, Nozaka and his wife Noriko Nozaka, an industrial counselor who works on mental health care in the affected areas, held a public online symposium (organized by the Nozaka Group, co-hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Community and Risk Management and the Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University) in Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture.

Before the symposium, Nozaka conducted a questionnaire survey of bereaved family members who had been interviewed for "Wasurenagusa," asking them why they had agreed to take part, among other questions.

"I wanted to leave proof that my parents-in-law had lived. I want future generations to know about this terrible event and learn from it." "By putting into words the feelings I had been keeping inside, I felt as if a heavy chain that had bound me for a long time had been set free." "The ordinary daily life we take for granted is not something we are owed. There is no guarantee we will be alive tomorrow, so I want people to love their families, their neighbors, and themselves, so they have no regrets." These are just a few responses, but every one of them carries a weight that goes straight to the heart.

At the symposium, Nozaka introduced how bereaved families have experienced the process of mental recovery. He noted that many bereaved families go through mainly three stages: "a state close to having no emotions, due to the severity of the experience and the enormity of the loss;" "a stage in which negative emotions such as anger, grief, and anxiety come out strongly, and in which they push themselves hard as if to hide those feelings, or fall into deep depression, and unreasonably blame themselves for having survived;" and a stage in which they accept their painful experiences through 'self-acceptance' and try to move forward in life, finding sources of emotional support in small everyday things."

He also said that they are "in a process of mental recovery, moving forward while 'wavering' between parts that have healed and parts that have not," and stressed the importance of long-term, ongoing involvement and understanding. If "recovery" is to include the "mental recovery" of disaster victims, then recovery is still only halfway done.

Funding and finding people to carry on are challenges; Passing on lessons is the core of pre-disaster recovery

Shinichi Takeda is a representative director of the public interest incorporated association "3.11 Memorial Network," which aims to sustain the legacy of the Great East Japan Earthquake. According to Takeda, a survey by the network found that the number of visitors to 42 memorial facilities in the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima in 2025 was about 1,503,800. It was a second consecutive year of decline, following 2024, which was the first year of decline excluding those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline is being seen not only at privately run facilities, but also at earthquake remains and memorial facilities that have been well maintained with public support.

Not only has the downward trend in visitors continued, but survey results show that 96% of the organizations running disaster learning programs feel anxious about the future, such as how to find enough people to pass on these stories. There is a strong sense of anxiety and concern among those involved in the activities regarding both "funding and finding enough people to pass on the history."

With 15 years now marking a turning point, reconstruction-related budgets in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, excluding Fukushima Prefecture, where some areas remain off-limits, are ending or being sharply cut this fiscal year. Even the few projects dedicated to passing on the history, which were funded under the name of "victim support," will end at the close of this fiscal year.

On these challenges, Takeda points out: "The fact that the national government and local governments have not until now treated these projects as an important policy priority has had an impact." It is true that reconstruction projects prioritized the "hardware" side, namely the construction of disaster public housing and disaster prevention facilities, which received enormous budgets, while the "software" side, including the mental recovery of disaster victims and activities to pass on the history of the disaster, was left largely to private volunteers and had little support.

At the time of the earthquake, Takeda was the head of the news department of Kahoku Shimpo Publishing, where he oversaw on-the-spot reporting. After retiring from the company, he has continued to work with students at Miyagi University of Education as a specially appointed professor, deliberating the meaning and significance of passing on these stories. Now, concern is growing about massive earthquakes such as those along the Nankai Trough and directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area. The importance of "pre-disaster reconstruction," in other words, building towns that are resilient to disasters before they strike, is being called for more and more. Takeda stresses, "Continuing to pass on the experiences and lessons of the Great East Japan Earthquake to the future is at the core of pre-disaster reconstruction."

Entrusting "life-saving efforts" to future generations

Two high school girls were among the nearly 500 bereaved families and residents who gathered for a memorial service in Yuriage, Natori City. One was Mione Ito, who lost her grandfather, who was 61 years old at the time, when she was one year old. She came with her parents and elder sister. The other was Miu Otsu, whose family was not directly affected by the tsunami but who was just ten months old at the time of the disaster. She came from Sendai City with her mother. Both are currently first-year students at a high school in the city.

On the dove-shaped balloon to be released after the moment of silence, Mione wrote in blue pen: "Now that I'm in high school, I'm challenging myself with new things and living each day to the full. Thank you for saving one-year-old Mio-cchi." Miu's message read: "March 11, 2011. I was 0 years and 10 months old. I have no memory of that time, but I will keep passing on the story." She wrote it firmly on her white balloon in red and blue ink. Miu said, "I was not affected, but I want to keep cherishing the lives that have been passed down to me and show my gratitude. That's the feeling I came with today."

People's memories fade as all kinds of events happen around them, near and far, day by day. Fifteen years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, public interest has tended to decline. Even so, many young people, like the two high school girls who were in Yuriage, have a strong awareness and determination to take in the lessons of the disaster and pass them on.

"Disaster prevention and mitigation are not just about how to evacuate. They are about looking squarely at the dignity of life and thinking about how to protect it, so that people do not die in terrible ways." "It is important to connect the experience of the disaster to changes in awareness and changes in behavior." Takeda's words left a strong impression.

Treating it as your "own issue"

The Great East Japan Earthquake will never fade into "the past." However, the bereaved families and survivors who have passed on the memories and lessons of the disaster will grow older. More young people will have no memory of the disaster. And there is the cruel reality that in this "earthquake-prone nation," a major earthquake can strike anywhere, at any time.

It is important for many people, even those who did not experience the disaster, even those far from the affected areas, to take natural disasters seriously as their "own issue," and to act on that. This will help us prepare for the future and reduce the number of casualties when the inevitable day of disaster comes.