The unforgettable images in the Japanese disaster

At 14:46 on Friday, March 11, 2011, a 9-magnitude strong earthquake occurred off the northeast coast of Japan, accompanied by tsunamis hitting the shore immediately afterwards. In the picture is a tsunami pouring into Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture. There are data that the city must receive a tsunami up to 40m high. Photo: AFP

A violent tsunami attacks Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. This horrifying double catastrophe killed about 19,000 people in northeastern Japan and went missing. The work of finding people still missing is still happening. Photo: Kyodo News / AP

Natori City, Iwate Prefecture, was swept by the tsunami. The tsunami consequences left in the Northeast of Japan are very heavy, with an estimated rebuilding cost of 10 trillion yen, or about 122 billion USD. Photo: Kyodo News / AP

Yuko Sugimoto, wraps a blanket around him to keep warm, and then finds her missing son in the rubble in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. This image then appeared on the mass media throughout the world, and became one of the iconic images that clearly portrayed the horrors of the Japanese double disaster. Sugimoto then found a son and continued to live in Ishinomaki city. Photo: Yomiuri

The fireballs burned in the fire at the Chiba oil refinery in the same province on March 11. This fire is caused by earthquake damage. Photo: EPA

A Japanese man walks past the rubble and a house is burning after an earthquake in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. Photo: Kyodo News / AP

A giant whirlpool was formed on the sea near the port of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, after a double disaster. Photo: Kyodo News / AP

The houses caught fire after being swept away by the tsunami at the Miyagi prefectural capital of Sendai. An estimated 125,000 houses in 18 provinces of Japan are directly affected by the double disaster. Photo: Kyodo News / AP

The earthquake and tsunami also damaged the reactor at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant, leading to the world's worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This photo recorded a corner of the house. The tsunami was attacked on March 11. Photo: TEPCO / AP

A satellite photo was taken on March 14, 2011, three days after the disaster, recording a picture of smoke rising from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) then worked hard to overcome the Fukushima nuclear incident, but the process is expected to continue for many more years. Photo: Digital Globe

The houses, supplies and even a boat lay sprawled in a huge rubble in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 12. Photo: EPA

Fire cars were still in disarray at a port of Tokai village, Ibaraki prefecture. These are originally cars waiting to be exported. About 230,000 cars of all kinds become scrap metal after the Japanese double disaster. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun / AFP

An aerial photo taken on March 13, 2011 showed that a corner of Kamiishi City, Iwate Prefecture, was nearly flattened after the tsunami passed. Photo: EPA

Mr. Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, was rescued by members of the Choukai ship of the Japanese Ocean Defense Force, about 15 km from the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. Shinkawa was discovered sitting on a roof at the time of two days after the double disaster. However, these miraculous survival stories don't appear much. Photo: Jiji Press / AFP

A surviving girl cried alone in ruins, ruins in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture. Along with Ms. Yuko Sugimoto's photo, this photo also became one of the iconic images in the Japanese double disaster. Photo: Asahi Shimbun / EPA

This photo was taken on March 14, 2011, showing a fight scene of the Japan Air Defense Force being pushed by a tsunami into a warehouse at the Higashimatsushima base in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: AFP

The ruined landscape is devastated after the tsunami passed in Otsuchi City, Iwate Prefecture. Photo: EPA / Asahi Shimbun

The members of the Fukushima 50 group, including those who voluntarily stay at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant to fix the problem, are connecting the wires to re-generate power for the 3 and 4 reactors. Photo: AP

Retired firefighter Shuichi Ishikawa, 61, is searching for his son Masahide missing after a double disaster in the deputy city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, on March 16, 2011. Masahide is also a firefighter. These scenes of finding relatives like this can be found throughout the Northeast of Japan after the disaster. Photo: EPA

The photo taken on April 3, 2011 shows that the Hamayuri yacht was caught on a two-story house in Otsuchi City, Iwate Prefecture. Vessels of all kinds ran aground, even stuck on the roofs, which could be seen throughout the northeastern provinces of Japan after the tsunami passed. Photo: AP