Residents of the Sanriku coast had supposedly had the world's highest level of awareness regarding tsunamis. So what exactly happened on the coast of Iwate Prefecture that day, and how did the people react? At Kamaishi, a city of Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku region, a cameraman rushed to the television station's coastal branch office and recorded images of his hometown being swallowed up by the tsunami. Many people in Iwate Prefecture lost their lives to the giant wave. The wall of water even reached the farthest inland areas where the ocean was out of sight. Some died despite evacuating just as they had been instructed in drills. Meanwhile, a number of districts sustained relatively small damage though hit by the tsunami head-on. These were places where forerunners who had suffered countless losses from the frequent tsunamis had learned from their experience and moved communities to higher ground. Damage was kept to a minimum in these districts, where people followed their ancestors'warnings carved in stone.