It was an unprecedented disaster that the world watched unfold in real time. A massive earthquake rocked Futaba, Japan, on March 11, 2011, which triggered a tsunami. The two natural disasters killed more than 18,000 people, the Associated Press reported. But the chaos continued when a fire at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant released radioactive material into the air and water. Three of the plant's reactors melted down, according to the World Nuclear Association, making it one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.
Five years later, the effects are still being felt by residents. Many survivors are still not able to return to their homes.
"I want to go back to my beloved hometown, but we can't, there is too much radiation. Futaba town is my children's birthplace, it is sad we are not able to live there anymore," Maki Yokota, 30, told CNN.
Children living in the area have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a much higher rate than their peers, according to a study of data from the Fukushima Medical University. Cleaning up the radioactive material and rebuilding the area remain big challenges, and the plant's operator says it could take until 2050. Radioactive water is still piling up, by some estimates, at a rate of 300 tons per day, the Associated Press reported.
Ahead, Refinery29 looks back at one of the world's nuclear disasters five years later.
Caption: A woman throws flowers at Fukanuma beach on March 11 in Sendai, Japan. Friday marks the fifth anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that killed thousands. Some 174,000 people have still not been able to return to their homes.
Editor's note: Captions were provided by Getty Images.
A satellite view shows the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Futaba, Japan.
Photo: DigitalGlobe via Getty Images.
A local resident walks among debris on March 31, 2011, in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. The 9.0-magnitude strong earthquake struck offshore on March 11 at 2:46 p.m. local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 32 feet, which engulfed large parts of northeastern Japan, and also damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant. Days later, the death toll continued to rise in a tragedy [of a magnitude] not seen since World War II in Japan.
Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
A trawler is washed onto the pier at Onahama Port on March 12, 2011, in Iwaki, Fukushima.
Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images.
People are screened for radiation exposure in a testing centre on March 16, 2011, in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. Japan's Emperor Akihito made a rare appearance at the time to say he was "deeply worried" about the crisis in his country.
Photo: Tayama TATSUYUKI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
A local resident walks among debris on March 31, 2011, in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. The earthquake and tsunami displaced over 100,000 people.
Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
A Japanese policeman wearing a protective suit searches for tsunami victims within the exclusion zone, about 12 miles away from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, on April 7, 2011, in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture.
Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
A family photograph is found among the rubble at Rikuzentakata on March 26, 2011, in Iwate Prefecture.
Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
A deserted street, within the exclusion zone, about 12 miles away from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant on April 7, 2011, in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture.
Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
Police search Ukedo beach, within sight of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, for the bodies of victims on February 27, 2012, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture. Ukedo beach lies within the evacuated and now uninhabited 12-mile exclusion zone that is in force around the stricken nuclear plant. The exclusion zone used to be home to approximately 73,000 people, but all have been evacuated by the government and are now restricted from returning home due to high levels of radioactive contamination from the explosions at the Tokyo Electric Power Company-owned Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the earthquake and tsunami.
Photo: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Images.
Police sergeant Yabuki Koshin and Constable Kanno Tomoyasu walk the grounds of Obori Kindergarten while on patrol within the 12-mile exclusion zone around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, on February 27, 2012, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture. The exclusion zone encompasses six towns and two villages, and police patrol it looking for any signs of burglaries or crime in the now uninhabited zone.
Photo: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Images.
Police officers stand guard at a checkpoint within 12 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 9, 2015, in Tomioka town, Fukushima Prefecture.
Photo: Ken Ishii/Getty Images.
In this image provided by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, workers remove nuclear fuel rods from a pool at a reactor on November 18, 2013, in Okuma, Fukushima. In 2013, TEPCO started removing nuclear fuel from a damaged reactor building for the first time, marking a new stage in the decades-long decommissioning process. The overall decommissioning work at the stricken nuclear plant is expected to take 30 to 40 years to complete.
Photo: Tokyo Electric Power Co via Getty Images.
Workers of TEPCO and the Kajima Corporation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant pose for portraits on February 23, 2016, in Okuma.
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.
Removal work starts on a "Bright Future" pro-nuclear sign in the evacuated Fukushima town on December 21, 2015.
Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images.
A little girl and her mother pray for the victims of the tsunami during a memorial ceremony on March 11, 2014, in Iwaki, Fukushima.
Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images.
Some 800 people hold hands and pray for the victims ahead of the fifth anniversary of the disaster, at the Yotsukura beach on March 5, 2016, in Iwaki, Fukushima.
Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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