Richard Lloyd Parry on the Tsunami

Thanks to Jon Wolton for the lead to this atmospheric and powerful piece on the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami - an event which has changed Japan forever in many ways.
It was published in the London Review of Books back in 2013

It is well worth reading.
Here's a short extract:

In describing the landscapes of war, we often speak of ‘total’ devastation. But even the most intense aerial bombing leaves walls and foundations of burned-out buildings, as well as parks and woods, roads and tracks, fields and cemeteries. The tsunami spared nothing, and achieved feats of surreal juxtaposition that no mere explosion could match. It plucked forests up by their roots and scattered them miles inland. It peeled the macadam off the roads and cast it hither and thither in buckled ribbons. It stripped houses to their foundations, and lifted cars, lorries, ships and corpses onto the tops of tall buildings. 


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