First Person: Rich Japan's stunning descent into misery

Bodies are strewn among the knotted skeletons of entire towns.

Military helicopters clatter overhead.

Survivors who lost everything huddle under blankets in schools-turned-shelters as foreign governments dispatch aid and urge their citizens to flee.

After years spent reporting from desperate and war-torn corners of the world, the scenes I've witnessed here are unsettlingly familiar.

It's the setting that's not.

Image: Japanese military helicopter sits among debris at Matsushima air base of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force, northeastern Japan, on Saturday, March 12.

Text: Todd Pitman, Associated Press

AP Images (Any unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited)