IN my living memory, tsunamis didn’t exist. Okay, that’s not true.

They must have been there but you just didn’t hear much about them.

Even if you did they were referred to as the considerably less exotic sounding tidal wave.

It was only after the Boxing Day disaster in South Asia in 2004 that the term was officially on my map.

Then last year – a year ago on Sunday to be precise – another huge wave along the coast of Japan made tsunami the word on everyone’s lips.

It’s hard to believe it has been a year since that disaster and the week long furore surrounding it.

The news was filled with little else, possibly because as well as being a natural phenomenon as old as the world itself, this event was a very modern disaster.

The meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor added an extra dimension of fear and worry.

As if 20,000 people killed or missing wasn’t enough.

I say a week-long furore. I can’t really remember but it was news day and night for a while and then it all just sort of petered out.

The world went back to its daily life and – aside from seeing an uncomfortable looking government official drinking some water on TV in a bid to show it was not contaminated – very little seems to have been said since.

The anniversary has changed that and suddenly the pictures once again show the sheer scale of the disaster and the rebuilding challenge now facing the Japanese.

It’s almost impossible to imagine how this will happen and how long it will take. Years? Decades?

I suspect it will be more like generations. You can rebuild homes but how do you cope with 20,000 people missing?

When six British servicemen were killed in Afghanistan last week, we saw outpourings of grief.

There were mums, dads, wives, aunts and uncles. We heard of the effect on children that were not yet born.

There were friends. And even a minute’s silence at a football ground where some of them were season ticket holders.

The chairman of the club pointed out that many supporters knew or knew of the men.

If that was just six, just think of how far the impact must spread when the number is 20,000.

It is strange that all has been quiet in the year since the Japanese tsunami but not surprising.

Perhaps it is just too much to comprehend.