Ryota Haga was a first-year high school student when his family’s house was swept away by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. When his school reopened a month after the disaster, 40 of his approximately 120 classmates had already left the town. Haga is the only one of the stayers who went on to higher education. The town has 4,779 fewer people than its population on March 1, 2011.