Tsunami in Street View

Google has put web users at the heart of the destruction unleashed by the March 11 tsunami, with a new service that lets you compare images of areas before and after the disaster hit. Launched as part of Mirai e no Kioku (Memories for the Future), a Japanese-language site collecting videos and photos from before the tragedy occurred, it uses Street View to take a virtual tour of cities and towns whose names have probably been burned into your mind after months of grim news reports. Here, for example, is a typical street from the devastated city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture:

© Google 2011

© Google 2011

Eight months on from the disaster, as the scenes of wrecked streets and flattened buildings have assumed a deadening familiarity, it offers something we hadn't thought possible: a fresh perspective. Google hopes, too, that its present efforts will ensure that future generations can remember, and try to understand, a disaster that many of us would probably rather forget. See for yourself at Memories for the Future.