"It's all gone. There is nothing left." That was how Toshio Abe, 70, described the former village of Saito with 70 houses and 250 inhabitants which was literally wiped off after a tsunami obliterated everything in its path following a powerful 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

In an interview with AP, Abe said he was tending his garden Friday afternoon when the ground trembled and he heart tsunami sirens blaring followed by loudspeaker warning people to seek higher ground. At least 40 people have been killed or missing after the huge waves destroyed Saito, Abe said.

Abe rushed to a nearby hill some two kilometers away from the beach and watched as giant waves destroy his home and his entire village. He described the wave as two-story high as it crisscrossed through the valley and follow a two-lane road. The wave rose and plowed through a bridge smashing houses which were crushed like they were dollhouses. The power of the wave uplifted some of the houses which crashed into other houses.

Three days after the quake, Saito is a scene of death, agony and nightmare. The village, as well as nearby villages, have no power and water. The nights are very dark and silent. The remaining few buildings that are still standing are all closed. Everywhere you look are destruction. Everything has stopped.

Government help arrived later to look for the dead.

"I never thought a tsunami would come this far inland. I thought we were safe," Abe said.

Abe promised to rebuild his house but somewhere else, probably much farther inland.

Takao Oyama, a 48-year-old construction worker pointed to pile of mud and sand whom he said was where Saito's city hall used to be. Several yards away, he pointed to a three-story building whose entire façade has been destroyed and was now covered in ocean boys as the city's once elementary school. But the entire area is almost flat.

Oyama added, "We struggled, but it is all gone. Everything is lost."

"We can never live here again," Oyama said as he rested with his wife on a concrete ledge of the broken tarmac road.