In Aneyoshi there is a one hundred year old stone tablet that gives a dire warning: “High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants. Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point.”

The families living in Aneyoshi are glad they headed their ancestors advice. But thousands of others suffered the wrath of the tsunami. There are hundreds of these stone tablets all along the coastal areas of Japan. Some are 600 years old.

Many tablets are not as specific as the one at Aneyoshi. Some simply say beware of tsunami, or were blank. Some of those stone tablets have been washed away by the March 11 tsunami, which is an indicator of that it was probably the mother of all tsunamis to hit Japan for the past thousand years.