On January 17th in 1995, the Kansai area was hit by the second most important earthquake in Japanese 20th century history. My mother's family's house was entirely destroyed and my mother returned there to recover the most important objects, our memories, from the ruins. At the time, I was too young to undertake this trip with her. 

On March 11th in 2011, another earthquake, magnitude 8,9 on the Richter scale, followed by tsunami devastated the Tohoku area in the north of Japanese archipelago. The groundswell ruined more than 600km of coast, provoking a major accident in the Fukushima nuclear power station. 

Five months later, I went with my mother to this country which is also mine. The incomplete information given by the french media made me want to see for myself, to produce images, without pathos and grandiloquence. to show Japan afterwards. Even though everyday li fe got back to normal very quickly, many things were let unspoken. It is this silence which I wanted to catch.​