As the last remaining house was torn down in a postwar makeshift residential district near the center of Sendai, it marked the end of an era for those who had come to call the neighborhood their home.
Despite many wishing to stay in the Oimawashi district, residents were asked to vacate their houses to make way for a greenery project, as the city of about 1.1 million moved to demolish what was seen as a symbolic relic of its administration in the immediate post-World War II period.
The district was built nearly 80 years ago for people whose property had been destroyed by bombing in the war, meaning despite its dilapidated infrastructure, many considered the neighborhood a place of refuge.