Above a photo shows a ship washed ashore by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture, Japan, April 16, 2011. Below an image of the same area nearly 10 years later, January 27, 2021. /VCG

(Top) A photo of residents of Kesennuma, northeastern Japan, as they walk along a road that was cleared by a bulldozer six days after the tsunami, March 17, 2011. (Second from the top) People cross the same street, February 23, 2012. (Second from the bottom) a worker on a construction site, Monday, March 7, 2016. (Bottom) The reconstructed streets are seen almost 10 years after the devastating earthquake, March 5, 2021. /VCG

(Top left) a picture shows a rescue worker walking through rubble in a tsunami-hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, March 18, 2011. (Top right) The same area nearly one year later, January 14, 2012. (Bottom left) The area two years later, February 20, 2012. (Bottom right) The same nearly 10 years later, January 26, 2021. /VCG

This image juxtaposes a March 11, 2011, photo of tsunami waves engulfing houses in the Miyagi Prefecture city of Natori, northeastern Japan, with a February 14, 2021 photo of the same area 10 years later. / VCG

This March 4, 2021 photo collage shows a ship (top left) called Asia Symphony that ran aground during the March 11 tsunami in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Japan on March 18, 2011. The same area is shown nearly one year later on January 16, 2012 (top right), two years later on February 18, 2013 (bottom left) and again nearly 10 years later (bottom right) on January 27, 2021. /VCG

(Top) A photo shows the situation on the ground in a tsunami-hit area in Natori in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, from a Kyodo News helicopter on March 11, 2011. (Bottom) A photo of the same area from a different helicopter on February 14, 2021. /VCG

(Left) A photo of the tsunami-devastated Onagawa town in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, March 22, 2011. (Right) An image of the public houses built for the affected people on elevated land and a new railway station in the same area, February 12, 2021. /VCG