[BunnySlippers]

Japan’s earthquake happened at sea and was shallow. But Japan was far more prepared and the buildings were more stable.

The scenario in quake/tsunamis is that the quake breaks up or destablizes the building. But the tsunami does the major damage by denuding the landscape.

I see them as very similar but the point being that there will probably be about the same percentage of missing persons in the end. But, there are definately a lot of deceased in all the debris.

[Eye of Unk]

There is one thing nobody has talked about, I know for a fact that Japan has created tsunami berms, gates and flood channels as it was on several documentaries, but was there any of this type of infrastructure built along the bays in this area?
The images I saw were of massive tall flood gates at least 30 feet tall, these I don’t know where were built, my guess is they were further south.

[brityank]

Point to remember is that most buildings are pretty closed up above the ground floor (especially in winter), and the rising water will trap the air inside and lift the building like a cork. Most buildings, unless they're located in tornado/hurricane areas, are not built to be tied down to the ground they stand on. You can see some of that in the videos of the tsunami, like this 6+ minute YouTube:

What an incoming tsunami looks like [HD]

I sure hope and pray those folks at 6:15 got spared.