A stranger visiting the fishing port of Kesennuma today may not realize that six years ago it suddenly became the scene of massive, deadly devastation.
Much of the land in the port's waterfront area remains vacant, except for the foundations of hundreds of structures swept away by tsunami reaching up to 10 meters that struck on March 11, 2011, killing about 20,000 people along the Tohoku region's coast.
Kesennuma is one of the biggest Tohoku fishing ports, and seafood firms have been key players in the local economy.