Google Maps show Japan earthquake and tsunami damage in street view mode

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Google is using its Street View tool to show the devastation that struck Japan after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the country last March.

The " Memories for the Future " project, or "Mirai e no kioku" in Japanese, was also created to help those "rediscover lost memories of their homes and towns," the Google website said.

Many people lost photos of family and friends and other priceless memories on that fateful day of March 11, 2011; so Google has provided a place where people can upload photos and videos to help those remember what was lost.

In addition, Street View is also helping out by offering the option of viewing images of the area from before and after the natural disaster. This gives people around the world the opportunity to see just how devastating the event was.

Visitors to the site can do this by clicking on the "Before" tab and then dragging the little orange person icon to the area of the map you want to view. Once you can see the Street View, click on the "After" tab to see the most up-to-date view of the area.

The BBC website has selected some of those before and after photos and documented them in a slide show here .

Google hopes that this documentation will help in other ways, too.

Google senior product manager Kei Kawai told PC Mag , "In the case of the post-tsunami imagery of Japan, we hope this particular digital archiving project will be useful to researchers and scientists who study the effects of natural disasters. We also believe that the imagery is a useful tool for anyone around the world who wants to better understand the extent of the damage. Seeing the street-level imagery of the affected areas puts the plight of these communities into perspective and ensures that the memories of the disaster remain relevant and tangible for future generations."