Triple disaster causes carnage, tragedy in Japan
March 25, 2026 1:47 PM
On March 11, 2011, the earth was shook as Japan experienced one of its largest earthquakes in history. Around 3 p.m. local time, an undersea earthquake hit just off the Japanese coast, recorded at a magnitude of 8.9. This was said to be one of the strongest earthquakes to ever hit the region.
The northeast coast of Japan was next hit with a 33-foot tsunami wave that caused major damage and sent thousands out to fend for themselves. The aftershocks reached a magnitude of 6.0, which still shook the earth and caused even more damage.
Around 50 nuclear power plants shut down because they were affected by the tsunami. Hundreds of miles away from the origin of the earthquake, Tokyo’s buildings and ground shook.
There were more than 50 aftershocks after the original earthquake. Kana Summer, a Japanese student studying Sociology at Dalhousie University says “nothing was working in Tokyo for a while, so people were rushing to the superstores and buying anything they could find there.
The oil for the cars is still affecting people in Tokyo. Traffic is another thing; living in Tokyo-city many individuals relay on the transit (trains, subways and buses), and none of them were running for a long time. Many had to sleep on the streets and some tried to walk home (for about 10 hours…).”
The Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara City exploded and there were flames cast up to around 100 feet.
On Saturday, March 12, the Japanese government sent out 300 planes, on land troops and 40 ships. They discovered hundreds of dead bodies.
The United States sent relief teams along with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Another explosion happened, and this time it was at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. It was said that the explosion caused there to be 8 times the normal radiation levels. It was discovered however that the explosion did not affect the reactor.
By this time, more than one million houses did not have water and four million buildings had no power.
On Sunday, March 13, 170,000 people were evacuated from the Fuckushima area to keep them away from the possible radiation caused by the explosion at the nuclear plant. On March 14, the Japanese stocks dropped rapidly due to the costs that the earthquake posed on Japan. The Bank of Japan moved to stabilizing the market and so they forced 15 trillion yen into the money market.
A third explosion happened at the Fukushima plant. On March 15, because of these increased levels of radiation the government encouraged people who live within 19 miles of the plant to stay in doors.
Summer says, “of course donations will be a great help. Perhaps, individuals can talk to their friends or family members and raise more awareness of what is going on in Japan. So many people lost their love ones, and their houses. People have just enough food and water to survive.”
Today, people are still trying to find their loved ones and there is still an on going struggle for food and shelter.
