One of the defining images from the Great East Japan Earthquake is of a tsunami-hit tourist bus stranded on the roof of the two-story community center in the Pacific coastal district of Ogatsu, Miyagi Prefecture.

The last sight Akinari Abe, 24, remembers about his hometown before it was obliterated by massive waves is that of local residents yelling at him from a hill.

"I was on the roof of a house that was being pulled out to sea by the receding tsunami. Neighbors were telling me to jump off, but I didn't. If I had, I wouldn't have survived," Abe told The Japan Times in a recent interview.