Your Take: One year since the Japan earthquake

A man visits the 'Cat Shrine' on Tashirojima Island in Miyagi Prefecture on March 9, 2012, two days before the anniversary of the disaster. (Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press)

Sunday marks one year since the earthquake off the east coast of Japan that produced a series of massive tsunami waves and triggered meltdowns at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

A magnitude-9 earthquake, the biggest quake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s, struck off the country's northeast coast at 2:46 p.m. local time. It was followed by at least 50 aftershocks, some of them more than magnitude 6.0, and triggered a tsunami that swallowed homes, swept away cars and boats and forced people to scramble to higher ground.

The CBC Community Desk contacted Canadians who were in Japan during the earthquake, and they sent us their stories and pictures.

One year later, we look back at how these Canadians lived through this natural disaster. 

Alex (who asked that is last name not be used) is a 15-year resident of Tokyo and a native of Saskatchewan. He was working west of Tokyo, near one of the busy trunk railways, during the earthquake.

Jeff Cadieux, a native of Markham, Ont., but living in Niiza, Japan, at the time of the quake, said his daily life continued virtually uninterrupted in the days following.

Philippe McKie is a Concordia University student who was in Tokyo on a student exchange. He was in a restaurant in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo when the quake occurred.

Christina Teng was teaching English as a second language at a private elementary school in central Tokyo. When the earthquake struck, she went into emergency mode to help her students, many of whom could not go home because train service was halted.

Derek Cormier is student from the University of Manitoba who was working as an intern in Yokosuka, Japan, in the Greater Tokyo area. He was in the 10-storey Nippon Telegraph and Telephone building when the quake happened.

Stephanie Gormek, 28, was working as an assistant language teacher in Hasuda in the prefecture of Saitama in Japan. She is originally from Uxbridge, Ont.

Matthew Meleg, of Harrow, Ont., was working as an English teacher in Tokyo. Already hobbled by a broken leg, Matthew was cleaning up a classroom when the earthquake struck. 

Michael Seid, 22, is from Vancouver. He was in Tokyo on holiday when the earthquake hit.

Jonathan Woods is a nurse in Calgary, Alta. He and his wife, Moo, were in Tokyo en route to Thailand for a holiday when the earthquake struck.

Bob Iwami is a Japanese-Canadian who lives and works in Vancouver. He is a general manager of Japanese sales for a forest products manufacturer and travels to Japan every month to oversee the company's office there. He was in Tokyo when the earthquake struck.

Ian MacDougall is a Canadian who has been living in Tokyo since 1984. He is a freelancer that works in Japanese film translation.

Yuri Komuro, 31, is a Canadian working for an IT company in Tokyo. She has lived in Japan since 2006.