Japanese's ancestors left ancient markers with dire warnings on them, tragically many of them ignored. In the hamlet of Aneyhshi, a centuries-old tablet saved many lives.
"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants. Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point," was carved on the stone slab.
The earthquake, registering 9 on the Richter scale, on March 11th, was followed by a 10 metre tsunami that killed 15,000 people, with 11,000 still missing. Roughly a dozen householders had taken the ancestor's advice seriously and their homes emerged unscathed from the horrendous events.
Hundreds of these markers are dotted all along the Japanese coastline, some more than 600 years old.
Together they created a crude warning system, along a coastline that is located on major fault lines, making the area a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis across the centuries.
A 12 year old pupil's mother grabbed him out of school, as the entire village headed for higher ground. He said "Everybody here knows about the markers. We studied them in school".
Another marker read "Always be prepared for unexpected tsunamis. Choose life over your possessions and valuables". Upon returning to their homes to survey the damage, earthquake survivors tried to gather their valuables and store their 'tatami' floor mats, only to lose their lives in the tsunami.
Following a 7.1 tremour cracks were discovered in a second nuclear power plant. There have in fact been around 1000 tremours since March 11. All efforts to bring the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant under control have not yet been successful. This could take many months says the TEPC.
A professor in disaster planning in Tokyo University in Sendai, a tsunami-destroyed city, Fumihiko Imamura, said "It takes about three generations for people to forget. Those that experience the disaster themselves pass it to their children and their grandchildren, but then the memory fades."
Isamu Aneishi's ancestors moved his family-run inn to higher ground more than 100 years ago. The sixty nine years old said his three grandchildren are missing after going to school in Chikei, just 500 feet from the ocean.
Numerous temples are named after past tsunamis and one town was named 'Octopus Grounds', in relation to the sea life that was wiped out by previous tsunamis. Yet people ignored these warnings.
As 43-year-old Kosai pointed to the broken foundation to what was once a two-meter high marker that was swept away in the tsunami, he said "I always told my parents it was dangerous here". It had read 'If an earthquake comes, beware of tsunamis'. "In five years, you'll see houses begin to sprout up here again".
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