Mrs. Mariko Kurumatsuka, 31, holds her newborn daughter, Haru, in one month after the earthquake at Abeno Clinic in Ishinomaki, Miyagi. "Are you OK?", Mrs. Kurumatsuka who was pregnant with 8 months baby, sent a short message to her husband's mobile phone right after the huge earthquake. "Yes, I'm OK", after she received the message from her husband, the phone line was cut off. Tsunami attacked Higashimatsushima where her husband worked. Her husband saw tsunami on the rearview mirror of his car. He flattened the gas pedals to go up the hill. Two days after the earthquake, they reached their house and found each other alive. On the 7th of April, another earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit their area. They lost electricity and water again. At night her labor started. They tried to call a hospital, but the line was cut off again. Without knowing if the hospital is open or not, they drove to the hospital. The hospital was open. Their daughter, Haru, "spring" in Japanese, was born next day on the 8th of April. "One day, we will tell her the story of this earthquake and tsunami," she said. "We will not be able to forget about it forever."
On March 11, 2011, the earthquake of magnitude 9.0, the biggest earthquake in the history of Japan and the fourth biggest earthquake in the world after year 1900, shocked the Tohoku area of Japan. In about 30 minutes, devastating tsunami reached, affecting the coastline with a length of 500 km (310 miles). The tsunami wave height of 39 meters (128 feet) was recorded in a port town in Tohoku. The tsunami swallowed villages along the coast and washed away all houses. The earthquake and tsunami killed more than 15,800 people, and still more than 3,500 people are missing.