Amid Japan’s Devastation

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Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME

Two sisters seek shelter in a school gymnasium after being evacuated from Minamisoma, near the Fukushima nuclear plant, on March 16, 2011

TIME contract photographer Dominic Nahr is documenting the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Nahr, represented by Magnum, arrived one day after the 8.9-magnitude quake hit on March 11, 2011, and spent the first night with several other journalists on the floor of a house in Fukushima. “Quite a sight: six guys huddled together like sardines covered in blankets,” he said.

The next morning, the group piled into two tiny cars and started driving. “We were on a small road toward the coast and passed a checkpoint,” he said. “Suddenly we were in a wasteland of cars, debris and houses.” Minutes later, he photographed rescue workers walking through the rubble with two victims covered in a blue tarp, a solemn scene that sadly will be repeated over and over as the rescue effort continues.

Nahr, who also covered the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti last year, said the situation in Japan is vastly different. “Haiti was very unorganized, but within the chaos, it was easy to move around and also easier to get supplies. Here both are difficult because of strict rationing and sections of devastated areas [that are] cordoned off or just unreachable.”

“There are a lot more aftershocks here, some very powerful,” Nahr, reporting from Sendai, said on March 14. “There must have been over 50 since we got to the hotel.”

The fear of a nuclear meltdown continues to loom heavily on everyone in the region. “You never know. The wind changes,” he said, referring to the threat of drifting radioactive clouds. “None of us knows what it means if one of these reactors goes.”

Note: This gallery will be updated regularly with more of Nahr’s photographs from Japan.

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