The earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, left more than 18,000 people dead or missing, including 30 non-Japanese.

Two were from the United States, Taylor Anderson, who was teaching in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and Monty Dickson, who lived in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. Anderson was the first foreigner discovered to have fallen victim to the tsunami.

Mihoko Terada, a translator living in Sendai, published in November a Kindle book about Japanese and Americans who either lost their lives or lived through the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.