The day after the earthquake, I rushed to the disaster region and shot photos over the following two months. The conditions there were catastrophic, and taking photographs was extremely difficult. Even for me, who has personally seen a wide range of war zones and disaster areas throughout the world, it took a long time to accept what I was seeing as being real. Spreading out before my eyes was one scene after another that seemed to indicate that the world had come to an end. In early August, I went back once again to the disaster area which had seen the passage of five months since the tsunami took place.

These five photographs here are from that August visit. What I found this time were scenes of stagnating recovery in ghost towns of wreckage and rubble, but by contrast, great change had occurred in the mood of the people. When I saw them pulling wagons and playing music for the Tanabata festival, I did not feel the same sense of sad resignation that I did before. Their extraordinary world had become ordinary for them. In this, I felt the inherent strength of human beings, which gave me the strong conviction that recovery is only a matter of time.