Big News Network.com
Japan woke to a multi-faceted national disaster scenario Saturday with five nuclear plants in states of emergency, entire towns obliterated by an earthquake-spawned tsunami and fires raging in many areas due to the mammoth earthquake.
A 30-foot tsunami slammed into the eastern coast of Japan following one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, causing destruction and damage of biblical proportions across the country.
Japan has not experienced such a disaster since the mid 20th century when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Entire towns have been wiped from the landscape, hundreds of acres of farmland have been destroyed and essential public infastructure has been destroyed or badly damaged.
The images broadcast on national television in Japan show apocalyptic scenes of ocean-going trawlers being pushed miles inland by the tsunami, other vessels being pulled into a swirling whirlpool while other footage showed Sendai Airport being entirely surrounded by relentless muddy water.
The 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of just 10 kilometres, even shallower than the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that caused staggering destruction in the Haitian capital, Port-Au-Prince in 2010.
Across half the world, tsunami warnings have been issued. Almost every country with a coast on the Pacific Ocean has signalled a tsunami alert and hundreds of thousands of people living in coastal areas were advised to seek higher ground.
Since the quake struck, Japan, along with nearby countries, has been struck by as many as 50 aftershocks, many reaching or exceeding 6-magnitude, leading Japanese authorities to issue further tsunami warnings.
The scale of destruction is extreme. The tsunami swept several miles inshore, swallowing everything in its path. Horrific images on Japanese television showed the wall of broiling water devouring bridges, roads, farms, houses and vehicles, churning into a broth of deadly debris.
According to initial reports, several hundred have already been confirmed killed. Authorities have announced 200 to 300 bodies were found in the north-eastern coastal city of Sendai, with a further 349 people missing. The death toll for the nation is likely to be much higher given the scale of the disaster.
Some media reports put the number of missing people at 88,000.
A tired and strained looking Naoto Kan, the Prime Minister of Japan, told reporters Saturday that he was travelling north to the disaster areas himself to see the scale of the destruction.
Although Japan has experienced powerful earthquakes in the past, it has never endured an 8.9-magnitude one and experts have agreed the situation is unprecedented for the Japanese government, which remained on high alert throughout Friday night.
A nuclear power plant just 170 kilometres outside the capital, Tokyo, was shutdown in the hours after the quake when its cooling system failed, causing the nuclear core to over-heat.
No radiation leak has been reported, but thousands of residents living near the plant have been ordered to evacuate.
At least four other nuclear reactors, two at a second power plant, have reported problems in the aftermath of the quake, though the Japanese government has not released further details.
The national public transport system, world famous for its efficiency and time-keeping, has been brought to its knees, in Tokyo and wider northern Japan, all train services have been suspended, while major roads and highways have been either destroyed or closed due to damage.
The level of disruption and chaos is immense and although the death toll is likely to reach into the thousands, its relatively low level thus far is a testament to the early warning and emergency rescue services in Japan, which moved quickly to evacuate residents from coastal communities in the hours after the quake.
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