Introduction: The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, devastated large areas of northeastern Japan. Medical students participated in the medical support teams dispatched by Tohoku University Hospital to the devastated areas. However, whether participation in such medical support teams affects the learning attitudes and future careers of medical students has not been examined.
  Methods: We used a questionnaire to investigate how 19 students who participated in medical support teams thought their participation would affect their learning attitudes and future careers. We analyzed the results by simple tabulation.
  Results: After participating, many students thought that they would have to study harder because they had been able to do nearly nothing by themselves for the people in the devastated areas. They also stated that they wanted to work in the Tohoku district in the future.
  Discussion: These results suggest that the participation of medical students in medical support teams for devastated areas encourages them to study harder, probably because they recognize the importance of health care in society. The results also suggest that participation provides students with opportunities to consider their future careers from a different point of view.