Cherry Plants to be planted in Japan to warn future generations about Tsunami

Cherry trees planted in tsunami-ravaged city of Rikuzentakata, Japan

Residents of the tsunami-ravaged coastal city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture have launched a project to plant cherry trees marking the points where waves reached on March 11, 2011 to warn future generations about a repeat of the catastrophe.

The residents eventually aim to plant about 17,000 cherry trees at a distance of every 10 meters in a line stretching some 170 km in the city in the project that would cost up to 100 million yen in total. The project has been driven by the conviction that indifference and a lack of knowledge amongst local residents concerning tsunamis had worsened the human cost of 2011’s disaster.

They had no knowledge of inland points where waves had reached in the past and thus the objective is to ensure that the future generations to be made aware of such points where the disaster can struck in future.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2012