Shock and Awe

Seventy-six-year-old Tatsukichi Yamada, his wife, son and grandson are living in a tent city outside the high school in Tokamachi, a small tourist town in Japan's northwest Niigata prefecture. They're all wearing five layers of clothing to keep warm and have no idea when it might be safe to return to their home. "They say there might be another big one within a week," says Yamada. "I can't go home. I want to take a bath."

The Yamadas were among more than 100,000 people made temporarily homeless last week in the aftermath of Japan's worst earthquake in nearly...