Rikuzentakata’s seafront was once regarded as one of the most scenic in Japan, with the golden sands of its two kilometer-long beach separating the clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean from its famous forest of an estimated seventy thousand pine trees.
On Friday 11 March 2011, as the end of the working week approached, most people in Japan would have been looking forward to a late winter’s weekend; many students would have been celebrating the approaching end to the academic year.