Yuji Hamada will mark his 16th birthday on March 11, but last year's disasters have stripped the occasion of much of the joy he felt on past anniversaries, when he would celebrate at home with his family.
With the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake approaching, Hamada feels conflicted by a day that now marks both his birthday and last year's enormous loss and destruction.
"It's a day that appears to be both happy and bad," he said.