See parts 1, 2, 3The goal of most of the work going on in Ofunato seems to be to help people move on from the tragedy, to create the conditions where some sense of normalcy can return. Clearing debri, gutting houses, fixing up parks, etc.
What makes the job so difficult is that most pictures have parts that are severely damaged. You must handle the photos very delicately or the entire picture will dissolve in your hands, gone forever. 
It's impossible not to go through an alblum of pictures and not wonder what happened to those in the photo, whether they survived or not. Most volunteers up in Ofunato prefer the physical labor, when I was there the photo project was the last one to fill up (which is how I ended up on it). However, there is a core group of dedicated volunteers who are committed to photos. Many of them have been working through boxes of photos day in and day out for months.
The photo recovery project stands out in this regard in that it's purpose is to help restore to people some small token of what was lost. Recovery workers found hundreds of thousands of photos that had been washed away by the tsunami. Many of these photos suffered irreparable damage, and all of them will quickly decompose if they aren't cleaned and treated.
The longest running All Hands project is the photo recovery project. The estimate I got when I was up there was that they had cleaned, restored, and returned about 80,000 photos to date. NPR actually did a story on the project which you can find here.
I had the opportunity to help out on this project on my second day. One would think that compared to doing hard physical labor out in the sun this would be a pretty cushy job. In fact it's incredibly tedious and in many way emotionally draining work. Each photograph must be carefully washed in cold water, in order to clear off corrosive bacteria. Once each photo is cleaned they are hung up to air dry.
What makes the job so difficult is that most pictures have parts that are severely damaged. You must handle the photos very delicately or the entire picture will dissolve in your hands, gone forever. 
It's impossible not to go through an alblum of pictures and not wonder what happened to those in the photo, whether they survived or not. Most volunteers up in Ofunato prefer the physical labor, when I was there the photo project was the last one to fill up (which is how I ended up on it). However, there is a core group of dedicated volunteers who are committed to photos. Many of them have been working through boxes of photos day in and day out for months. My short weekend stint in Ofunato left me with a deep respect for the people who have committed so much time, in many cases making severe personal and professional sacrifices, and all that had accomplished. It's easy to feel like a half hearted weekend warrior around people who've committed so much. As the All Hands project in Ofunato will wind down in the next month I felt a bit of regret for not coming sooner, and if I'm being completely honest a bit envious too of their opportunity to be part of something that's so important, has had such an impact, and the deep personal connections they've made with others along the way. I'll be heading back up there next week for at least one more trip before they wrap up.
The All Hands people put together this short video, that shows some of the projects they worked on and how much things have changed in the past six months. Check it out.
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