Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Japan marks 4th anniversary of tsunami disaster

Japan marked the fourth anniversary Wednesday of a quake-tsunami disaster that swept away thousands of people and sparked a nuclear crisis, a tragedy that has left visible scars on the landscape and continues to cause misery for many.

Remembrance ceremonies were held 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 peacetime disaster.

Television footage showed victims and volunteers joining hands in prayer near the shell of a tsunami-hit building in the northeastern port town of Minamisanriku, one of the many stark reminders of the destruction.

A national minute of silence followed the wail of tsunami alarm sirens at 2:46 pm local time, the exact moment a 9.0-magnitude undersea quake hit.

Its gigantic 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.

"The situation surrounding disaster victims remains severe," the emperor told the ceremony.

"It is important to continue making efforts to build a safer land without forgetting this lesson."

Japan's National Police Agency said a total of 15,891 people are confirmed to have died in the disaster, with another 2,584 listed as missing. Human remains are still occasionally found.

The nuclear disaster that the tsunami caused at the Fukushima plant continues to haunt Japan and color national debate.

The crippled plant remains volatile and the complicated decommissioning process is expected to last for decades.

After successfully removing spent fuel rods from a storage pool at Fukushima, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power is still struggling to handle an ever-increasing amount of contaminated water.

Japan's entire stable of nuclear reactors was gradually switched off after the disaster.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government and much of industry are keen to get back to atomic generation - largely because of the high costs of dollar-denominated fossil fuels to an economy with a plunging currency - the public is unconvinced.

A nuclear watchdog has so far given the green light to re-firing four reactors at two plants, but the actual restarts will be delayed until a months-long public consultation is finished and local authorities give their blessing.

In the shadow of Fukushima Daiichi on Wednesday, former residents of the nearby evacuated town of Namie placed flowers at a temporary altar and bowed toward the sea.

In the background, crushed cars and the remains of flattened houses still littered the landscape.

Fears persist among Japan's population over the effect on health of the radioactive leaks, despite repeated calls from scientists for judgments to be based on evidence.

Gerry Thomas, a specialist in thyroid cancer at Imperial College London, who also conducted research on the health effects of the 1992 Chernobyl accident, told reporters in Tokyo the worries were disproportionate.

"The health effects caused by the radiation itself were very small, but the health effects that were caused by worrying about the radiation were much, much greater," she said in Tokyo, referring to post-Chernobyl studies.

Despite government pledges of 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.

According to the government, nearly 230,000 people are still displaced - many of them by the nuclear disaster - including 80,000 living in temporary housing.

On Tuesday Abe vowed to draw up a new-five year plan to speed rebuilding.

Much remains to be done, with many towns struggling to provide jobs and permanent housing for thousands of residents, Abe told a news conference, adding that the government would prepare a new five-year reconstruction plan by this summer.

He declined to give any details of the budget, apart from saying it would be decided in talks with local governments. It is estimated that the government has paid out as much as $50 billion to the three regions hardest hit by the disaster.

Since the 9.0 magnitude quake, Japan has allocated more than $15 billion to an unprecedented project to lower radiation in towns near the plant, with irradiated trash piling up in 88,000 temporary storage facilities nearby.

Tokyo plans to build a more permanent storage facility in several towns abandoned due to the accident, despite opposition from some residents, a decision Abe alluded to by thanking those in agreement with the plan.

   globaltimes.cn
11-12/3/15
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