6 months later, progress mixed with uncertainty, frustration among tsunami survivors

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TOMOKO A. HOSAKA
Associated Press
9:53 a.m. CDT, September 11, 2011

TOKYO (AP) — As the world commemorated the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, Sunday was doubly significant for Japan. It marked six months since the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, a date now seared in the national consciousness.

Up and down the hard-hit northeast coast, families and communities came together to remember victims. Monks chanted. Survivors prayed. Mothers hung colorful paper cranes for their lost children.

At precisely 2:46 p.m., they stopped and observed a minute of silence. March 11 changed everything for them and their country.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake produced the sort of devastation Japan hadn't seen since World War II. The tsunami that followed engulfed the northeast and wiped out entire towns. The waves inundated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, triggering the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.


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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-japan-earthquake,0,5356019.story

20,000 dead. 800,000 homes destroyed.