One Year After the Tragedy: Japan Mourns Tsunami Victims

One Year After the Tragedy: Japan Mourns Tsunami Victims

Through a moment of silence, prayers and anti-nuclear rallies, Japan marked on Sunday one year since a 9.0 magnitude earthquake which resulted to tsunami killed thousands and set off a radiation crisis that shattered the world’s trust.

The strong earthquake that hit Japan's northeast coast a year ago, unleashed a wall of water that killed nearly 16,000 and left nearly 3,300 people not yet found. The country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

In the port town of Ofunato, hundreds of residents gathered to lay white chrysanthemums in memory of the town's 420 dead and missing.

"We can't just stay sad. Our mission is to face reality and move forward step by step," said Kosei Chiba, 46, who lost his mother and wife in the disaster. "But the damage the town suffered was too big and our psychological scars are too deep. We need a long time to rebuild."

The country observed a minute of silence at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT), the time the quake struck.

Half a mile from Tepco, Tokyo Electric Power Company’s wrecked Fukushima plant, where the meltdown of reactors triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, residents of Okuma were allowed back for just a few hours to honor the dead.

Authorities have imposed a 20-km (12 mile) no-go zone around the plant and residents of the abandoned town may never be allowed back.

The Japanese earned the world's admiration for their remarkable composure, strict discipline and resilience in the face of the disaster, while their companies impressed the world economy with the speed with which they bounced back.

As a result, the $5 trillion economy looks set to return to pre-disaster levels in the next few months with the help of about $230 billion earmarked for a rebuilding effort agreed in rare cooperation and agreement between the ruling and opposition parties which shows their collaborative effort to help their country recover despite the differences in political beliefs.

Posted by James Fried on Monday March 12 2012, 5:01 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0