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Buddhists Remember Japan's Tsunami Victims
By not in system - AOL NewsSOMA, Japan -- Buddhist priests in black and gold robes chanted and rang bells Thursday to mark the 49th day since Japan's massive tsunami when the dead are believed to end their restless wandering through the devastated coastline. About 1,200 mourners filled a hall to overflowing, with many standing outside a gate, for a ceremony organized by 170 priests in the northeastern town of Soma, where much of the coast remains buried in mountains of debris from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Many carried framed photographs of lost loved ones, and wept. Some clutched wooden tablets containing ...
With 12,000 Still Missing, Japan Keeps Searching
By not in system - AOL NewsSHICHIGAHAMAMACHI, Japan -- A line of somber soldiers walked methodically through a drained swamp Monday, with each step sinking their slender poles into the muck beneath. If one hit a body, he would know. "Bodies feel very distinctive," said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the Japanese army's 22nd infantry regiment. The men were among 25,000 troops given the morbid duty of searching the rubble, the seas and the swamps of northeastern Japan for the bodies of the nearly 12,000 people still missing in last month's earthquake and tsunami. The two-day operation was the biggest military search ...
Careful Search for Mementos Slows Japan Rebuilding
By not in system - AOL NewsKESENNUMA, Japan -- Sakuji Funayama watched intently as a giant steel claw tore chunks off the remains of his two-story home, ripped open like a dollhouse by last month's tsunami and washed up onto a pile of debris. Suddenly, he spied something, waved his arms and pointed. The claw froze and a half dozen construction workers scrambled into the wreckage, emerging a few minutes later with a battered backpack that belonged to Funayama's son, who moved away years ago. He set it off to the side. The race to clear the destruction from Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami so rebuilding can begin ...
Japan Plans Disaster Budget, Building 100K Homes
By not in system - AOL NewsTOKYO -- Japan's government proposed a special $50 billion (4 trillion yen) budget to help finance reconstruction efforts Friday and plans to build 100,000 temporary homes for survivors of last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The twin disasters destroyed roads, ports, farms and homes and crippled a nuclear power plant that forced tens of thousands of more people to evacuate their houses for at least several months. The government said the damage could cost $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he was moved by his ...
Students Return to School in Japan's Disaster Zone
By not in system - AOL NewsKESENNUMA, Japan -- In the gray of early morning, plastic curtains are pulled back from the school gym's windows and 260 evacuees sleeping on blankets stir to life under basketball hoops. For 13-year-old Yuka Chiba, it's the first day of eighth grade. Yuka hasn't been at school since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of her neighborhood. On Thursday, with the new school year starting, she gets ready to go back. Yuka shuffles across the cold, hardwood floor in a flannel shirt she wears as pajamas to the large heaters near the door. There is no need to rush, she only has to ...
Japan Declares No-Go Zone Around Nuclear Plant
By not in system - AOL NewsTOKYO -- Japan declared a 12-mile (20-kilometer) area evacuated around its tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant a no-go zone on Thursday, urging residents to abide by the order for their own safety. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the order would take effect at midnight and was meant to prevent unrestricted entry into the mostly deserted area, which was ordered evacuated after last month's tsunami and earthquake wrecked the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's power and cooling systems. Under Japan's Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law, people who enter the zone would be subject to fines of up ...
Japan Mulls Strictly Enforcing Evacuation Zone Near Plant
By not in system - AOL NewsTOKYO -- Japanese authorities may for the first time strictly enforce their evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, citing concerns Wednesday over radiation risks for residents returning to check on their homes. About 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked its power and cooling systems, setting off the worst nuclear power crisis since the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl. Virtually all of the residents left when the government ordered the area ...
Baby in Iconic Tsunami Photo Safe With Parents
By not in system - AOL NewsISHINOMAKI, Japan -- A Japanese soldier grins as he cradles a tiny baby in a fuzzy pink blanket, plucked from the second story of a wreckage-blocked house three days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami flattened much of the country's northeastern coastline. The moment -- captured by a photographer from leading Japanese newspaper Yomiuri and published by newspapers and websites worldwide -- evoked a rare glimmer of hope amid so much destruction and death from the March 11 disasters that killed an estimated 26,000 people. Yomiuri Shimbun / AP In March, a Japan Self-Defense Force ...
Nuke Plant Starts Pumping Out Radioactive Water
By not in system - AOL NewsTOKYO - The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant began pumping highly radioactive water Tuesday from the basement of one of its buildings to a makeshift storage area in a crucial step toward easing the nuclear crisis. Removing the 25,000 tons of contaminated water that has collected in the basement of a turbine building at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will help allow access for workers trying to restore vital cooling systems that were knocked out in the March 11 tsunami. It is but one of many steps in a lengthy process to resolve the crisis. Tokyo Electric Power Co. projected ...
5 Asian Nuclear Reactors Face Tsunami Risk
By not in system - AOL NewsJAKARTA, Indonesia -- The skeleton of what will soon be one of the world's biggest nuclear plants is slowly taking shape along China's southeastern coast - right on the doorstep of Hong Kong's bustling metropolis. Three other facilities nearby are up and running or under construction. Like Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant they lie within a few hundred miles of the type of fault known to unleash the largest tsunami-spawning earthquakes. Called subduction zones, these happen when one tectonic plate is lodged beneath another. And because the so-called Manila Trench hasn't been the source of a ...
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