Shizugawa Station platform after Tsunami

was a

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

railway station located in Minamisanriku,

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The station was destroyed by the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

. Services have now been replaced by a provisional bus rapid transit line.

Lines

Shizugawa Station was served by the

Kesennuma Line The is a local railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connected Maeyachi Station in the city of Ishinomaki, Ishinomaki, Miyagi to Kesennuma Station in the city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, Miyagi. Th ...

, and was located 33.7 rail kilometers from the terminus of the line at

Maeyachi Station is a junction railway station located in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Maeyachi Station is served by both the Kesennuma Line and the Ishinomaki Line. It is the souther ...

Station layout

Shizugawa Station had a single

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

and a single

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

serving two tracks, and connected to the station building by a level crossing.

History

Shizugawa Station opened on 11 December 1977. The station was absorbed into the JR East network upon the

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of the

Japan National Railways The , abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pre ...

(JNR) on April 1, 1987. Operations were discontinued after the station was completely destroyed by the

and an iconic video on the internet recorded from the Shizugawa High School shows the station being flattened as well as the tracks and other nearby buildings before being pouring down to a flat area towards a neighborhood. Today rail services have now been replaced by a bus rapid transit line.

Surrounding area

Japan National Route 45 is a National highways of Japan, national highway of Japan connecting Aoba-ku, Sendai and Aomori, Aomori. Alongside Japan National Route 6, it is a main route along the Pacific coast of eastern Japan. It is paralleled closely by the incomplete S ...

*former Shizugawa Town Hall *Sode Beach Ocean Swimming Area

References

External links

JR East Station information
* video of a train trip from

Utatsu Station was a JR East railway station located in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The blue-roofed station platform remained standing after the 2011 tsunami, however the adjacent railway bridge and track (southwest of the station) collapsed. S ...

to Shizugawa Station in 2009, passing Shizuhama Station at around 03:45 minutes without stopping. Satellite photos (e.g., in Google Maps) showed that much of the landscape visible in the video was severely affected by the 2011 tsunami and most of the railway bridges the train travels across were partly or completely destroyed. The destination Shizugawa Station was completely obliterated. * video of a train trip from Shizugawa Station to Rikuzen-Yokoyama Station in 2009, passing Rikuzen-Togura Station at around 03:48 minutes without stopping. Satellite photos (e.g., in Google Maps) showed that some sections of the railway were completely washed away by the 2011 tsunami, particularly near the departure point of Shizugawa Station and the vicinity of Rikuzen-Togura Station, while other sections remained intact. * video shot from a train (facing east) in 2009, stopping at Shizugawa Station and then proceeding to Rikuzen-Togura Station on the

. Satellite photos (e.g., in Google Maps) and aftermath videos show that virtually every building visible (except the very largest white buildings in the background) in the first three minutes, and in the final minute, were washed away in the 2011 tsunami, as well as the train track and infrastructure and both stations; buildings and track in the middle part were undamaged. * Shizugawa Station after the tsunami {{coord, 38.678147, 141.442944, format=dms, display=title, type:railwaystation_region:JP_scale:10000 Railway stations in Miyagi Prefecture Kesennuma Line Railway stations in Japan opened in 1977 Railway stations in Japan closed in 2011