Japan marks 1 year since quake, tsunami disaster

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MALCOLM FOSTER

TOKYO (AP) - Japan on Sunday was remembering the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world's worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century.

Along the tsunami-battered northeastern coast, in Tokyo and elsewhere, memorial ceremonies were planned to mark 2:46 p.m. - the precise moment the magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit on March 11, 2011.

The quake was the strongest recorded in Japan's history, and set off a tsunami that towered more than 65 feet (20 meters) in some spots along the northeastern coast, destroying thousands of homes and wreaking widespread destruction.

Today, some 325,000 people rendered homeless remain in temporary housing. While much of the debris has been gathered into massive piles, very little rebuilding has begun.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120311/D9TE149O0.html

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Mika Hashikai, 37, mourns for her mother and father, victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, March 11, 2012. On Sunday, Japan marks the one-year anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis.(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

[onehandle]

1. One year down. 29,999 to go and everyone will be able to return to their homes. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

2. 2:46 p.m. is just 21 minutes away here in Japan as I write

I am currently watching a Fuji TV program about the disaster, then and now.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Now the Emperor is making a speech live on Japanese TV

There was a minute of silence at 2:46

[fujiyama]

4. The Infocus gallery in the Atlantic is quite something

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/03/japan-earthquake-one-year-later/100260/

I remember finding out about the tsunami at work and a few hours later I was told I would have to be let go from my job due to all sorts of financial problems at the company I was working at. What a strange day. In a way the tsunami put my own problems in a lot of perspective.

A friend of mine in Tokyo posted on facebook that evening that he walked his entire route from work to home because the trains weren't operating. It was something like 20 miles, with a sea of people.

I am absolutely amazed by how quickly they've been able to rebuild the devastated areas.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Fuji TV has been showing a lot of heart-warming, and heart-wrenching, stories of survivors

There was one story about an 8-year-old boy (7 at the time) who lost his whole immediate family (mother, father, siblings) in the disaster and was living with his grandmother and trying to get on with his young life.

There was another story about some of the Fukushima towns that were hit particularly hard by nuclear disaster, like Tomioka which has essentially become a ghost town.

There was also a sad but also inspirational story about the few remaining students at an elementary school in Minami Soma, Fukushima. That piece ended with the kids singing an inspirational song about Fukushima and their future. I hope someone posts it on YouTube.