Six months on from one of the world's most devastating tsunamis, the BBC's Panorama programme spent 3 weeks travelling the diaster zone to hear remarkable tales of survival amid the epic destruction.
The programme, broadcast this week on BBC One and the BBC News Channel tells the dramatic stories of those who managed to escape when so many did not.
The disaster on 11th March 2011 claimed the lives of 21,000 people, including 74 children in a school in Okawa. In the programme, Panorama's Paul Kenyon meets
Naomi Hiraska who explains her decision to continue the search for the body of her 12-year-old daughter, Koharu, who was one of 108 children who attended the school.
The film also follows those returning briefly to homes abandoned within the radioactive no-go area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and asks what the future holds for the thousands affected.
You can watch the programme (in the UK only) on BBC iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014sgtt/Panorama_Tsunami_The_Survivors_Stories/
