Documentary airs new video from 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami New vision from the 2011 earth quake has aired in Japan RARE video from Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster has emerged as the nation marks the two-year anniversary of the disaster. Japanese television has aired new documentaries to coincide with the anniversary of the March 11, 2011, event, which left more than 18,000 people dead, and left thousands homeless as it wiped out dozens of towns and villages on Japan's north coast. New footage shows the effects of the 9.0 scale earthquake on Tokyo skyscrapers. Timelapse vision shows buildings swaying as if they were trees caught in the breeze. Other video, shot by traffic CCTV cameras, shows cars driving toward the wall of water - and the debris being carried along with it - before rapidly turning around and speeding away for their lives. It is unknown if they made it. New video from a traffic CCTV shows a car doing a quick U-turn before trying to race away fromthe tsunami. Another video is filmed by a mobile phone from a road in the path of the tsunami as it breaks over the shoreline, wiping out a stand of trees and barrelling toward the person filming. As the destructive flood of water and debris gets closer, the person scrambles for higher ground. People all over Japan bowed their heads in silence as they remembered the almost 19,000 who died on March 11, 2011. Withins econds of the car speeding out of sight, a wall of water and debris sweeps over the road. It is unknown if the person in the car survived. Ceremonies were held in towns and cities throughout the disaster zone, as well as in Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko led tributes on Monday to those who lost their lives in a disaster that also sparked a nuclear emergency. As a mournful quiet descended, cold winds blew through the grounds of Okawa Elementary School, in Ishinomaki, where at least 70 children were swept to their deaths by the rising waters of March 11, 2011. The city's tsunami alarms were sounded at 2:46pm (1646 AEDT), marking the exact moment a 9.0-magnitude undersea quake hit, sending a massive tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast. Japanese in Tokyo and the northeast mark the two-year anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated the nation. Jessica Gray reports. A total of 15,881 people are confirmed to have died and 2,668 others remain unaccounted for. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose government swept to power promising huge spending programs that would right the flattened region, said Japan had to learn from its terrible experience. "I pledge to achieve reconstruction of the disaster-hit areas and restore the lives of affected people as soon as possible," he told officials and dignitaries during a sombre ceremony. New timelapse video shows Tokyo skyscrapers swaying alarmingly during the magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, 2011. I will make Japan a country resilient to disasters while standing on the side of people who were affected. Two years after the devastation, many people are still living in temporary housing, with few signs of rebuilding. The dozens of temporary housing camps built for tsunami survivors were meant to be used for just two years. Now, officials are saying it could be six to 10 years before all are resettled.