What if your whole city has been changed in an instant? Buildings gone or moved, streets unrecognizably changed. Would you still be able to remember everything? Or would some details be lost in time?
The northeast of Japan experienced such a dramatic change in landscape on March 11. Whole buildings, blocks and towns were wiped from the map. Some people might have pictures online about the situation before the disaster, but wouldn't it be nice if you could share those pictures with your community in an effective way? Enter Google.
On May 16, Google Japan released this page called "Our Memories for The Future". It was revamped recently; my reason to introduce this page now.
It is basically a collection of photo's and videos, grouped in some 150 themes according to location, local festivities etc. Here's a commercial about the service.
Many of these images are of the disaster struck area, before the merciless earthquakes and relentless waves destroyed it all. You can search the images also according to location as you can see in this screenshot depicting Fukushima and Miyagi prefecture. The filter is set to "Before the Disaster".
You don't need to be able to read Japanese. Just take a look at some of the pictures. Some are about local festivals, others are about zoos and nature, and even company tours. It all seems very peaceful.
Just looking at them makes me realize how fragile life is and how we should be happy with what we got at this moment. As history has shown, we might not be able to hold on to it forever.
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