A map provided by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the predicted travel times of the tsunami. Photograph: NOAA/EPA

A nearby comic book store almost in ruins after the earthquake.

A tsunami striked Japan after the earthquake. Cars and posts carried away by the current. Mixed with different flammable objects or chemicals, it made a fire even on the water.

Because of the earthquake, the nuclear plant in Fukushima had a radiation meltdown and some reactors exploded.

A soldier carries an elderly woman on his back as people are evacuated to a shelter at Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture on March 12, 2011. More than 1,000 people were feared dead and authorities warned a meltdown may be under way at a nuclear plant after a monster tsunami devastated a swathe of northeast Japan. (AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS)