The tsunami that hit the Tohoku region in 2011 left deep scars, some of them in places not immediately obvious. Masahiro Kawatei's series, taken along the Tohoku coast between 2013 and 2019, concerns itself with the long-lasting shock of the disaster and creates a succinct, piercing document of the damage it has done. The Japanese phrase white sand, green pines is a poetic expression of the beauty of a Japanese beach; pine trees have been planted along the seaside for centuries, originally to protect coastal farmland and rice fields, and the phrase is tied to nostalgic feelings of home. Kawatei shows the coastal regions and beaches after the disaster: the few pines that survived stand isolated, sickly rather than idyllic, mere reminders of a beauty that once was. The afterword fears that this will be the image engraved in children's minds as the landscape of their home.