A pile of small display cases lies in the dirt outside the Rikuzentakata City Museum. With their glass tops smashed into a thousand shards that reflect the sunlight through a layer of dried mud, it's difficult to make out the crushed wings of the small butterflies still pinned inside.

Over two months have passed since the March 11 tsunami that leveled most of this city and completely inundated its two-story museum. For the last six weeks, a small group of city staff, volunteers and Self-Defense Force personnel have been attending to the mammoth task of recovering what is left of a collection of cultural, botanical and zoological artifacts that once numbered over 150,000 pieces.

"You should have seen it here when we arrived," said Koji Maeda, the head of the GSDF's 9th reconnaissance unit stationed in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.