Survivors Seek Japan's Past, in Photos

"The photographs, faded and dusty, are laid out on blue plastic sheets. A smiling schoolgirl in an ornate kimono holds a bouquet of flowers. A group of excited teenage boys huddle on a school trip. A party of red-faced men crowd around a long table filled with beers. The March 11 tsunami that devastated Rikuzentakata, a small seaside city in northern Japan, wiped away thousands of homes and left 2,000 residents dead or missing. As it swept away a community, the tsunami surge also carried off...