STORY: Saturday marked the 12th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m. local time, the earthquake was followed by an extreme tsunami wave, which also destroyed the local nuclear power plant and killed a total of around 20,000 people. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a commemoration event in Fukushima on Saturday: “The severe earthquake, the great tsunami and the accident at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant took the lives of many citizens of the prefecture. Even now I can feel it I can hardly bear the grief when I think of the feelings of those who have lost loved ones, family members, relatives and friends.” In the village of Hisanohama, about 30 kilometers south of the destroyed Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, hundreds of people came together to lay flowers and commemorate the moment of the disaster that changed the lives of many people forever.