True to the pledge it made back in July to digitally archive images of the parts of Japan affected by the March earthquake and tsunami, Google has uploaded imagery of post-earthquake Fukushima to Street View. They’ve also set up a ‘Build the Memory‘ website which compares before-and-after shots of the affected towns.

After travelling over 44 000km through tsunami-ravaged North-Eastern Japan, Google now allows people to take a digital tour of the area via the Street View feature of Google Maps. It’s pretty harrowing – especially when viewed through the ‘Memories for the Future‘ site, which allows viewers to toggle back and forth between pre- and post-earthquake pictures of the same structures and areas.

Says the Google Blog:

“A virtual tour via Street View profoundly illustrates how much these natural disasters have transformed these communities. If you start inland and venture out toward the coast, you’ll see the idyllic countryside change dramatically, becoming cluttered with mountains of rubble and debris as you get closer to the ocean. In the cities, buildings that once stood proud are now empty spaces.”

Take some time to look the place over.

[Source: GoogleBlog]