Sometimes pictures can offer more than words. I shot these while traveling through one of the hardest hits areas in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The coastal towns along the entire North East Japan seaboard shares the same type of devastation. The power of the earthquake and tsunami is surreal. Within many of these shots are buried lost lives.
Many will never be identified and many more will ever be found. When you stand within these scenes there is a haunting silence which is broken up by echos of a few volunteers and soldiers searching through the debris. When the wind blows through, the clatter makes for an uneasy moment. Some of the buildings were ripped from foundations and were tumbled. It’s a view of darkened windows, exposed substructures, twisted steel beams, smashed cement, and charred objects. Cars could be seen atop tall buildings and trees. There were pieces of everyday life indiscriminately scattered. There’s a pungent smell. A mixture of dust, decay, dead fish, sludge, and chemicals. The lasting feeling that is carried away from scenes like this can be defined from one word; “Inescapable…”
Linh Vien Thai is Amerasian, born in Dalat, South Vietnam, where he continued to lived during the war. He left for the U.S. and is now an American living in Tokyo. He enjoys adventure traveling and doing what’s right to make the world a better place.
