BOSTON — Within days of the March 11 catastrophe, N. Stuart Harris, a doctor at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, found himself in the back of an ambulance heading north overnight from Tokyo to hard-hit Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture on a five-day volunteer relief trip.
Kesennuma, known for its fishing industry, was one of the municipalities worst hit by massive tsunami triggered by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. A third of its area was swept away.
In addition to the damage inflicted by the wall of water, large-scale residential fires ravaged many parts of the city.