Japan yesterday observed a moment of silence to mark the third anniversary of the quake-tsunami disaster which swept away thousands of victims, destroyed coastal communities, and sparked the nuclear emergency that forced a rethink on atomic power.
Survivors bowed deeply and joined hands at remembrance ceremonies in towns and cities around the disaster zone and in Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko led tributes to those who died in Japan’s worst peace-time disaster.
A national moment of silence followed the cry of tsunami alarm sirens which were set off at 2:46pm, the moment a magnitude 9 undersea quake hit.
Photo: AFP
Its raw force unleashed a towering wall of water that traveled at the speed of a jet plane to the coast. Within minutes, communities were turned to matchwood, and whole families drowned.
Giant waves also crashed into the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, sparking reactor meltdowns and explosions, and setting off the worst atomic crisis in a generation.
The crippled plant remains volatile and the complicated decommissioning process is expected to last for decades, as fears persist over the health effects of leaked radiation. Tens of thousands were evacuated from the stricken area.
As night fell, an event in a Fukushima park saw about 2,000 lit candles arranged to read “Fukushima 3/11.”
“We must sincerely regret the accident and tackle the reconstruction by keeping the hardships faced by Fukushima people in mind,” Naomi Hirose, head of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power, told employees at the wrecked site.
In Tokyo, Akihito paid tribute to victims killed in the tragedy, and those struggling in its aftermath.
“Many still lead difficult lives in devastated areas and places that were evacuated,” he said. “I pray for a return of peaceful times.”
Although no one died as a direct result of Fukushima Dai-ichi, about 1,650 area residents passed away from complications related to stress and other problems following the accident.
A total of 15,884 people are confirmed to have died in the tsunami with another 2,633 still listed as missing. Human remains are sometimes still found.
In the shattered town of Namie, just 8km from the stricken plant, about 200 former residents, police and firefighters searched for remains. They raked a beach where broken timber and cars pulled by the waves once lay half buried.
“Our parents are still missing,” said 25-year-old former resident Miho Suzuki, who was joined by her sister. “I don’t think we’ll ever find them, but we came here to take part because we felt like doing something to help.”
For another former Namie resident, Morihisa Kadoya, returning to a town that remains uninhabitable due to health concerns seems like a distant dream.
“It’s impossible to come back — the decommissioning at the plant is going to take years,” he said.
Despite the government pledging billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, progress in disaster-hit regions has been slow, some communities remain ghost towns, and thousands of disaster refugees struggle to cope.
Among almost 270,000 evacuees from the tsunami and Fukushima, about 100,000 are in temporary housing while others found shelter in new cities or with relatives.
Japan has so far built only 3.5 percent of the new homes promised to disaster refugees in heavily affected Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.
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