All-formats exclusives examine Japan tsunami, 10 years on
By Haruka Nuga, Eugene Hoshiko, Mari Yamaguchi, Chisato Tanaka and Hiro Komae
The Tokyo team of senior producer Haruka Nuga, photographers Eugene Hoshiko and Hiro Komae, correspondent Mari Yamaguchi and video journalist Chisato Tanaka produced a string of visually driven exclusives to feed global curiosity about how Japan has fared a decade after one of history’s worst tragedies — the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that upended the lives of millions in 2011.
Nuga and Hoshiko spent time on the battered northeastern coast while Yamaguchi, Tanaka and Komae made their way into the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant. The trips produced compelling before-and-after images of the wreckage, and all-formats vignettes of the lives of the survivors with explainers, galleries, videos and exclusive stories.
Among the highlights were the moving story of a man who learned to dive in old age so he could search,week after week,for the remains of his wife,and gripping visual essays of the still-scarred landscape of northeast Japan,the eerie no-go zones near the nuclear plant and a hotel that has done weekly bus tours for hundreds of thousands of visitors interested in seeing the ravaged landscape. AP’s video showing was particularly strong, including footage of people symbolically searching the beach for bodies of the missing and quick live views of commemorative ceremonies across the country.