Japan Disaster: One Year Later – US Rescue Efforts [VIDEO]

Sunday marks one year since a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown struck Japan. The disaster on March11, 2011 killed an estimated 20,000 people.

FOX News Radio’s Alastair Wanklyn reports from Japan’s tsunami coast, in our special series, “Japan Disaster: One Year Later”:

Audio clip:

This was a railway station in Nobiru town.

The wave washed through the building destroying that, it lifted the tracks and left the power lines down.

It’s where US Marines came – some of them – in the days after the tsunami to try to help clear up.

In fact, it looks like nothing much has been done since those days, but the effort was appreciated by the people of Japan.

And it lives on today: the US Embassy and American organizations are sponsoring ongoing exchange programs which will in theory help lift the economy of this depressed part of northeastern Japan.

Not only did people lose their livelihoods here, they’re suffering the effects of radiation from Fukushima. The farmers still working here are finding it hard to shift their stuff to market.

On Japan’s tsunami coast, Alastair Wanklyn, FOX News Radio.

WATCH to learn more on the US military involvement after the Japan disaster: