Japan marks anniversary of quake, tsunami

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (AP) — For 70-year-old Toshiko Murakami, memories of the terrifying earthquake and tsunami that destroyed much of her seaside town and swept away her sister brought fresh tears Sunday, exactly a year after the disaster.

“My sister is still missing, so I can’t find peace within myself,” she said before attending a ceremony in a tent in Rikuzentaka marking the anniversary of the March 11, 2011, disaster that killed more than 19,000 people and unleashed the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter-century.

Across Japan, people paused at 2:46 p.m. — the moment the magnitude-9.0 quake struck a year ago — for moments of silence, prayer and reflection about the enormous losses suffered and monumental tasks ahead.

Japan must rebuild dozens of ravaged coastal communities, shut down the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and decontaminate radiated land so it is inhabitable again.

These are enormous burdens on a country already straining under the weight of an aging, shrinking population, bulging national debt and an economy that’s been stagnant for two decades.

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (left) gives a memorial address as Emperor ... more >

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reminded the Japanese people that they have overcome many disasters and difficulties in the past, and he pledged to rebuild the nation so it will be “reborn as an even better place.”

“Our predecessors who bought prosperity to Japan have repeatedly risen up from crises, every time becoming stronger,” Mr. Noda said at a ceremony at the National Theater attended by the emperor and empress.

Later, he told a news conference he hoped to see the disaster-hit areas fully rebuilt when “babies born on the day of the disasters turn 10 years old.”

The earthquake was the strongest recorded in Japan‘s history and set off a tsunami that swelled to more than 65 feet in some spots along the northeastern coast, destroying tens of thousands of homes and causing widespread destruction.

All told, some 325,000 people are still in temporary housing. While much of the debris along the tsunami-ravaged coast has been gathered into massive piles, only 6 percent has been disposed of through incineration.

Very little rebuilding has begun. Many towns still are finalizing reconstruction plans, some of which involve moving residential areas to higher, safer ground — ambitious, costly projects. Bureaucratic delays in coordination between the central government and local officials also have slowed rebuilding efforts.

In Rikuzentakata, which lost 1,691 residents out of its pre-quake population of 24,246, a siren sounded at 2:46 p.m., and a Buddhist priest in a purple robe rang a huge bell at a temple overlooking a barren area where houses once stood.

At the same moment in the seaside town of Onagawa, people facing the ocean pressed their hands together in silent prayer.

Memorial services continued into the night. In Ishinomaki, survivors lit some 2,000 candles to mourn for the victims.

The memories of last March 11 are still raw for Naomi Fujino, a 42-year-old Rikuzentakata resident who lost her father in the tsunami. She escaped with her mother to a nearby hill, where they watched the enormous wave wash away their home. They waited all night, but her father never came as he had promised. Two months later, his body was found.

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