was a town located in Shimohei District, Iwate Prefecture in Japan. Today it is part of the city of Miyako. History The village of Tarō was created on April 1, 1889, within Higashihei District with the establishment of the municipality system. Higashihei merged with the Kitahei and Nakahei Districts to form Shimohei District on March 29, 1896. Tarō was raised to town status on April 1, 1944. On June 6, 2005, Tarō, along with the village of Niisato (also from Shimohei District), merged into the expanded city of Miyako and no longer exists as an independent municipality. In June 2005, the town had an estimated population of 4,679 and a population density of 46.3 persons per km2. The total area was 101.05 km2. The former town is located to the east of the prefectural capital Morioka and north of the regional center Miyako with which it has now merged. The area has a rugged coastline to the east, which is a part of Sanriku ria Coast. The main local industry is commercial fishing. The town had been destroyed a number of times due to tsunami incidents all throughout its history. One of the earliest recorded was in 1611, but was later followed by similar tsunamis in 1896 (with 1,859 recorded deaths) and 1933 (with 911 recorded deaths). Due to its history of repeated destruction by tsunamis, two layers of seawalls in the form of an X-shaped structure were constructed. The seawalls had two joined sections forming seaward and landward levees, and ran to a total of long. It was known as a Banri no Chojo: Japanese for "Great Wall of China." The high seawalls were completed in 1958 after 30 years of work to protect Tarō. The seawalls, which could theoretically stop breaking waves up to high, were designed to divert tsunamis to the side around the town using channels and river dykes. Local municipal agencies regularly carried out annual tsunami drills simulating an emergency, wherein volunteers would close the seawall gates and residents would go to muster points above the town. The system worked well when a tsunami from the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile struck the town, resulting in zero lives lost in Tarō. 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami After years of success, the seawalls failed when tsunami waves estimated at to high struck Tarō following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Survivors said they saw