Japan mourns 19,000 victims on anniversary of earthquake

In the devastated north-eastern coastal town of Rikuzentakata, a siren sounded at 2:46 – the exact time the magnitude-9.0 quake struck on March 11, 2011 – and a Buddhist priest in a purple robe rang a huge bell at a damaged temple overlooking a barren area where houses once stood.

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

Meanwhile, at a memorial service in Tokyo’s National Theatre, 78-year-old Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stood in silence with hundreds of other people dressed in black.

Even in Tokyo’s busy shopping district of Shibuya, pedestrians briefly stopped and fell silent before carrying on.

Mr Noda recalled in a speech that the Japanese people had overcome disasters and difficulties many times in the past, and pledged to rebuild the nation and the area around the tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant so that the country will be “reborn as even a better place”.

“Our predecessors who had bought prosperity to Japan have repeatedly rose up from the crisis, every time becoming stronger,” Mr Noda said. “We will stand by the people from the disaster-hit areas and join hands to achieve this historic task to rebuild.”

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 north-eastern coast, destroying tens of thousands of homes and wreaking widespread destruction.

The tsunami also knocked out the vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, causing meltdowns at three reactors and spewing radiation into the air. Some 100,000 residents who were forced to flee remain in temporary housing or with relatives, and a 12-mile area around the plant is still off-limits.

The emperor voiced concern about the difficulties of decontaminating irradiated land around the plant so that people can live there again.

Naomi Fujino, a 42-year-old Rikuzentakata resident who lost her father in the tsunami, tearfully recalled last March 11.

With her mother, she had escaped to a nearby hill, where they watched the enormous wave wash away their home. They waited all night, but her father never came to meet them as he had promised. Two months later, his body was found.

“I wanted to save people, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even help my father. I cannot keep on crying,” Ms Fujino said. “What can I do but keep on going?”

All told, some 325,000 people rendered homeless or evacuated are still in temporary housing. While much of the debris along the tsunami-ravaged coast has been gathered into massive piles, very little rebuilding has begun.

Bureaucratic delays in co-ordination between the central government and local officials have slowed rebuilding efforts.

Anti-nuclear protesters at a central Tokyo park also held a moment of silence before marching toward the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.