Overview
- The unveiling took place on December 7 at the former town hall site in Otsuchi, Iwate, with about 50 attendees including Mayor Kozo Hirano and current municipal staff.
- The monument was established by a group of bereaved families led by Hitoshi Ogasawara, who urged visitors to treat disaster readiness as a personal responsibility.
- Instead of names, the stone records that the disaster headquarters was set up in front of the low-lying town hall rather than on higher ground after the quake, identifying this deviation as a factor in the deaths.
- About 40 municipal employees, including staff at branch offices and those returning to the office, were killed by the 2011 tsunami.
- Families and current staff funded the project, which followed the town’s initial rejection of a name-bearing memorial at the site in 2023 and a November 2025 agreement on a lessons-focused marker at the ruins.