Starting March 5 and airing every night for the next week, NHK will present a series of hour-long specials dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Suffice to say that only NHK could produce the kind of detailed and comprehensive reports the anniversary deserves.
The March 6 special will focus on the irradiated forests surrounding the crippled nuclear reactors. NHK brings cameras into an area that has remained virtually untouched since the accident. The special on March 10 is about an unconnected telephone booth in the middle of a devastated area that has become a shrine where people "communicate" with lost loved ones. On March 11, firsthand experiences of survivors will be recreated using computer graphics, while the March 12 show explains how the ¥26 trillion earmarked for reconstruction has been used so far.
Perhaps the most interesting documentary is "Zero kara Machi wo Tsukuru" ("Making a Town from Scratch"; NHK-G, Tues., 10 p.m.), about the effort to rebuild Rikuzentakata, which was completely wiped out by the tsunami. Last September, a giant conveyor belt that transported sand to the former city center was turned off and dismantled. The sand is being used to elevate the land, equal in area to 19 Tokyo Domes.