Pain lingers five years on as tsunami-hit Japan town rises from ruins

Members of Japan's Self Defense Force search for survivors in an area hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture March 15, 2011 file photo. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/Files

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (Reuters) - Time has done little to help Japanese volunteer fireman Eiki Kumagai with memories of March 11, 2011, when he clung to some steps as a huge black tsunami surged through his town, washing away people he knew as they cried for help.

"We were recovering bodies," the 48-year-old recalls. "This is a small town, we knew them all. Women, children, old people. There were so many, we had two layers."