The 8.6-meter-tall tsunami left a total of 84 individuals, including 74 schoolchildren, dead or missing at Okawa Elementary School. The towering waves ascended the nearby Kitakamigawa river while ...

The gently sloping terrain enabled the tsunami to travel as far as 3.7 kilometers inland from the mouth of the river, swallowing up the Okawa district. "Why couldn't (the kids) climb up the hill?" ...