RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Pref. — Yasuhiko Konno stands next to a pile of debris that reaches over two stories high. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath.

This was his sake brewery, one of the best in Japan, with a history that goes back hundreds of years. A week after he barely escaped a tsunami that flattened it and nearly everything else in sight, he's come back for the first time, and it takes him a second to collect his thoughts.

"I will do everything I can to bring us back for business, to start up again," he says.