Nearly 14 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, destroyed buildings that serve as reminders of the disaster are continuing to deteriorate.
Local governments looking to preserve the ruins to teach future generations about the destructive nature of the tsunamis that followed the temblor are struggling to maintain them as they erode over time.
Last December, a section of an exterior wall at the Okawa Elementary School Ruins in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, fell off. The tsunami that hit the school, which now forms part of the Ishinomaki Tsunami Ruins, killed 84 faculty members and students.
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