JAPAN: Cities across northeast hold memorials to remember the victims of the tsunami and nuclear crisis one year on

Record ID: 466130

  • Title: JAPAN: Cities across northeast hold memorials to remember the victims of the tsunami and nuclear crisis one year on
  • Date: 12th March 2012
  • Summary: IWAKI CITY, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (MARCH 11, 2012) (REUTERS) BEACH AND PEOPLE OBSERVING MOMENT OF SILENCE PEOPLE HOLDING FLOWERS AND OBSERVING MOMENT OF SILENCE MORE OF PEOPLE OBSERVING MOMENT OF SILENCE PEOPLE HOLDING HANDS MORE OF PEOPLE OBSERVING MOMENT OF SILENCE
  • Embargoed: 27th March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVABBT0RKICJJES68KNCJA12YVN5
  • Story Text: Hundreds gathered in Iwaki city along the Fukushima coastline on Sunday (March 11) to observe a moment of silence along with cities and towns throughout northeast Japan.
    For some, like Katsuko Ishii who came to the event with her 3-year-old daughter, the crisis is not over yet.
    "My home is in Namie town, and so we can't go home. There's not really any words for it. To be honest, we haven't really had any good signs," Ishii said, referring to a city still within the 20-kilometre nuclear no-go zone.
    Nearly 80,000 people across Fukushima have been forced to evacuate their homes due to radiation concerns.
    "I have hardly noticed the year passing. I've come here wondering how the people in the disaster areas have been managing all this time," said Shiori Anzai, 12.
    Politicians and bureaucrats drew fire for the chaotic response to the crisis at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima power plant and their failure to seize the moment and tackle a myriad of ills that have dogged Japan for the past two decades.
    In the port of Ofunato, hundreds of black-clad residents gathered at the town hall to lay white chrysanthemums in memory of the town's 420 dead and missing.
    "It's been a really difficult year. I came today here to bow and pray for it to become just a little bit easier for us all," said 68-year old Ofunato resident Katsuko Nori who lost a good friend.
    "I would like the souls of the victims to rest in peace and for us that remain to learn the lessons of this disaster," added Masami Oikawa, who lost his neighbours.
    One resident came to send a message to his grandfather.
    "I came here to tell my grandfather who was killed that I am okay and enjoying life here," said 21 year old Yoshiyuki Morishita.
    Yoshiyuki's grandfather, a veteran fisherman, was killed when the tsunami shattered the Morishitas' two-storey family house near the port as they tried to escape to the second floor.
    The country observed a minute of silence at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT), the time the quake struck.
    Residents of Ofunato gathered before a makeshift altar with a calm, sun-flecked sea behind them. Ofunato paused again 33 minutes later, the time when a year ago a 23-metre (75-foot) tsunami engulfed the town of 41,000.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register