Great East Japan Earthquake

This website was created and maintained from May 2020 to May 2021 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Stars and Stripes operations in the Pacific.
It will no longer be updated, but we encourage you to explore the site and view content we felt best illustrated Stars and Stripes' continued support of the Pacific theater since 1945.

From Tohoku to Tyndall, Air Force dependent faced down two historic natural disasters

Brianne Engle may be one of the few people affiliated with the U.S. military to be front and center for two historic natural disasters in two parts of the world, seven years apart.

Staff Sgt. Jonathan Jiloca was one of hundreds of people who crowded the Misawa Air Base commissary Saturday, emptying the shelves of batteries, water, canned food, barbecue charcoal, bread and other items.

Misawa residents stock up on supplies as they await electricity

Residents of this northern Japan air base, most still without electricity or heat following thea massive earthquake that rocked Japan early Friday afternoon, scrambled Saturday to stock up on supplies before darkness fell again.

Kazuko Igarashi, center, leads the Dragon-Eagle Taiko drum team through a performance at Misawa Air Base, Japan, on Saturday.

Misawa drum team holds earthquake, tsunami fundraiser

Misawa’s Dragon-Eagle Taiko drum team celebrated its 12th anniversary with a fund-raising performance Saturday to benefit the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.

An airman looks for trapped survivors at Sendai Airport, Japan, March 16, 2011, days after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and related tsunami stuck the region.

As 3/11 anniversary nears, US bases in Japan manage risk of another major quake

Most servicemembers and their families now living in mainland Japan weren’t there on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake combined with a tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and set off an ongoing nuclear crisis.

Water rushes out of a port at Onahama, in Fukushima Prefecture, before flowing back in again prior to a tsunami triggered by a preliminary 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on Tuesday.

No damage at US bases after 7.4-magnitude quake sparks tsunami waves in Japan

A strong earthquake off Japan’s east coast triggered tsunami warnings for nearly four hours Tuesday in the same region hit hardest by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and nuclear disaster.

A sign welcoming guests to Okumatsushima near Nobiru, Japan, is all that is left of the area Feb. 10, 2016.

Former community destroyed by 2011 tsunami now just a stop on way to somewhere else

A reconstruction worker on his lunch break walks by the framed pictures of U.S. soldiers that he’s passed by several times before — but this time, he really looks.

The remains of a sign reading ''Nuclear power: Energy for a bright future'' stands over the barricaded road along National Route 6 in the ghost town Futaba, Japan, less than 10 miles from the severely damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Fukushima radiation poses little risk, but lack of trust lingers

The worst health effects of the 2011 Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear power plant meltdown aren’t coming from radiation — at least, not yet.