#RememberJapan: One year after 3-11

MANILA, Philippines – On Sunday, March 11, 2012, Filipinos and the rest of the world commemorated how nature unleashed its wrath on Japan.  
With a moment of silence, prayers, anti-nuclear rallies, and visits to sites of the citizens’ former homes, Japan marked on Sunday the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and set off a radiation crisis that concerned the world over.

Philippine officials said that one of their lessons from the Japan tragedy was the fact that dealing with disasters requires a collaborative effort.

The rest, however, took to social media to share their thoughts or viewed dramatic pictures and videos to remember one of the world’s worst triple disasters.  

Below are some of the popular videos that are making the social media round:

This is a BBC documentary showing the disaster through the eyes of Japanese school children.

This one was compiled by social network Storyful

Meantime, Fuji Television Network and director Ridley Scott’s crowdsourced project called Japan In A Day, which invites people to submit videos of what they were doing or what they experienced on the day the earthquake and tsunami struck and the Fukushima nuclear plant had troubles — and how they are rebuilding their lives.  
 
Mashable said the final project will be launched on March 12, but the trailer is already available. See below.

According to Japan’s official statistics,

• 15,854 people died and 3,167 are missing, but, including suicides or death due to illnesses and other causes directly linked to the disasters, the total surpassed 23,000
• the tsunami destroyed or badly damaged 383,000 homes and buildings
• More than 344,000 evacuees still living in temporary housing units

Tsunami alert

Hours after a horrible magnitude 9.0 earthquake shook Japan on March 11, 2011, Filipinos also braced themselves for a similar 30-foot tsunami that has wreaked devastation along the northeast coast of our neighbor in the north.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) warned coastal communities in 19 northeast and eastern provinces in the Philippines that waves could rise up to a meter or less and would hit Philippine eastern shorelines between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Some were asked to evacuate to higher grounds.

After the video footages and social media posts about the devastation caused by the earthquake went viral, many panicked. The waves came. But they weren’t as devastating.

The Philippines is on the same Pacific Ring of Fire and constantly battered by natural calamities. – Rappler.com