Dawn broke!
At a hot spring hotel on the outskirts of Tokyo, Jiang Hao took a comfortable bath and lay on the bed watching the news.
A Japanese TV station's helicopter circled overhead as reporters filmed the scene below. The earthquake had not caused severe damage to buildings, since the epicenter had not been on the island but in a trench more than a hundred miles offshore. However, the tsunami's impact had shocked countless people.
Along the coast, cars and ships were piled in the mud. The beaches were riddled with craters, corpses could occasionally be seen, many houses had become ruins, and debris and trees were jammed together.
The reporter said mournfully, "This earthquake occurred roughly ten kilometers underground, eighty-six kilometers east of Japan. It has been measured at magnitude 9.4 on the Richter scale. The entire Japanese mainland felt the quake, with central regions such as Tokyo experiencing the strongest tremors."
"The earthquake triggered a tsunami. At its peak, the tsunami reached fifty to sixty meters high and traveled at 850 kilometers per hour. Even when it reached the coast, it was still around twenty meters high. It is Japan's third-largest recorded tsunami, striking roughly 170 miles of the northeastern coastline. The Ministry of Defense is currently organizing rescue operations."
"Experts from the Ministry of Transport estimate that more than five million people have been affected by this tsunami, one million may be left homeless, casualties may exceed one hundred thousand, and property losses could surpass 300 billion US Dollars."
The screen changed, showing an aerial view of Yokosuka Naval Base. A reporter shouted from the helicopter, "This is Yokosuka Naval Base. As we can see, the entire base is now a complete mess. Warships and equipment have been overturned everywhere, and the barracks have all been flattened."