Shocking Pictures from tsunami-hit Japan that has taken over 15,000 lives

Mtoday news / Mail

•  10,000 people missing in Minamisanriku after double disaster
•  Official death toll hits 574, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
•  Explosion at nuclear power plant, but experts say reactor is not at risk
•  Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
•  Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude
•  Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
•  70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai
•  Force of quake shifts Japan 8ft to the East

Today as the people of Japan came to terms with the devastating destruction and loss of life suffered after Friday’s megaquake a rare story of hope emerged.
Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, was today rescued after being pushed out to sea while he clung to the roof of his home after a tsunami engulfed Japan’s northeastern coast.
For two days, he tried to get the attention of helicopters and ships that passed by - to no avail. A lifeboat is sent from a Japanese military vessel to rescue the man sat aboard the roof of his house

 

Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, waves to rescuers before being hauled to safety today

 

People walk through the rubble that will take months to sort out in Rikuzentakakata, Iwate Prefecture

Cars sit on top of small buildings in a destroyed neighborhood in Sendai

 

The wave from a tsunami crashes over a street in Miyako City in an incredible picture taken on Friday but only just released

 

 

A river bank in Sendai is destroyed beyond recognition following the tsunami

 

 

Orderly queues are springing up all over Japan as people face a shortage of food, drinks and daily necessities - like this one in Shiogama

 

A pile of burnt out vehicles that were ready to be exported are piled in disarray at a port at Tokai village in Ibaraki prefecture - and an aerial view of the devastation in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi

 

A convoy of emergency vehicles drive past rubble in Natory City

 

Catastrophe: The true scale of the devastation that the tsunami unleashed is clear in this picture of the port city of Minamisanriku town where 10,000 people are unaccounted for

 

Carnage: Amidst tsunami flood waters burning houses and ships are piled in a mass of debris in Kisenuma city, Miyagi prefecture

 

Scattered: Train carraiges were thrown from the line in Fukushima and ships were tossed ashore by the tsunami in Aomori province

 

What’s going on? A toddler is checked for signs of radiation by officials in protective gear after thousands of residents were evacuated from the area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama

 

Blaze: Thick black smoke rises from burning buildings in a factory zone in Sendai, north-eastern Japan