The state of Minamisanriku Town in Miyagi Prefecture immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Photographed in March 2011. A harrowing scene spread out before our eyes. Dozens of steel rods twisted grotesquely, charred inner walls exposed to the open air, and eerie white smoke rising continuously. This was the devastation witnessed by our magazine’s reporter immediately after the explosion accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture). March 11 marks 15 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, which left over 20,000 people dead or missing. Even today, it is difficult to say that the affected areas have fully recovered from this unprecedented disaster. In the immediate aftermath, the reporter repeatedly visited the disaster zones. Here, we look back on the scars left by the massive tsunami and the nuclear accident that they witnessed. A few weeks after the earthquake, the reporter headed to Minamisoma City in Fukushima Prefecture. Entering a residential area from the main road, many buildings had been damaged by the violent shaking that recorded a maximum seismic intensity of 7. But what truly left them speechless was when they climbed the embankment separating the inland area from the coast. As far as the eye could see—nothing but empty land. A tsunami several meters high had struck, sweeping away buildings, cars, and people alike. A nearby resident who survived at the time recalled: “There were photos displayed at a nearby facility, but at first I couldn’t tell what they were showing. Swollen bodies filled with seawater. They were photos of the victims of the tsunami. They were displayed so that families could identify their loved ones.”