Japanese finding more tsunami victims

Japanese finding more tsunami victims; survivors face deprivation

By Chico Harlan and William Branigin, Monday, March 14, 4:22 PM

(Adapted from http://www.washingtonpost.com )

TOKYO — Rescue teams worked Monday to recover bodies that are washing up on Japan‟s northeastern shores, as millions of people faced a fourth night of deprivation and fear following Friday‟s powerful earthquake, massive tsunami and resulting nuclear emergency.

Officials said about 2,000 bodies have been found along the coast of hard-hit Miyagi Prefecture (district, region) in two areas devastated by the tsunami that struck shortly after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

The gruesome discoveries of victims who were apparently drowned in the tsunami indicated that the official death toll, which now stands at nearly 1,900, is certain to rise dramatically. Miyagi‟s police chief has estimated that at least 10,000 people died in the prefecture.

In Miyagi‟s mostly washed-out town of Minamisanriku alone, more than half the population of 17,000 has been reported missing.

With no power or running water and limited supplies of food, many Japanese are going hungry, thirsty and cold as they cope with near-freezing temperatures along the northeastern coast, where many communities have been wiped out and others remain hard to reach.

“People are surviving on little food and water,” said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, according to the Associated Press. “Things are simply not coming.” He said deliveries of food and other supplies were meeting just 10 percent of the people‟s needs and that body bags were in short supply, with local crematoriums(crematory) overwhelmed.

The rescue and recovery efforts were hampered by continuing aftershocks, which raised fears of new tidal waves. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded more than 70 temblors(quakes) Monday, including one of 6.1 magnitude.

Meanwhile, Japanese faced fears of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake. A large explosion damaged the building housing the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Monday, although officials asserted that the blast did not damage the reactor itself. The fuel rods in another of the plant‟s reactors became partially exposed when water levels fell temporarily, raising the risk of overheating and meltdown.

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Field said the U.S. 7th Fleet was forced to move ships out of the way of radioactive contamination that drifted out to sea from the Fukushima reactors after several service members were found to have been exposed. He said the exposure rate was “very, very low” and that the contamination was easily removed. No crew members suffered any harm, and “all are back performing their missions today,” Field said.

To help deal with reduced energy supplies as a result of the natural disasters and the nuclear crisis, Japan‟s government Monday mandated a series of rolling blackouts, three hours at a time. Farther north, ongoing relief efforts fell far short of meeting the demand for food, clean water and fuel.

In addition to the rolling blackouts, many Japanese companies and residential complexes took further steps to cut energy usage. At a crosswalk in front of Tokyo‟s Shibuya train station — usually a riot of lights and noise — massive video screens were turned off, and pedestrians moved in silence. Many stores reduced their hours. Trains ran on limited schedules.

At a school in Sendai being used as a shelter for the homeless or stranded, hundreds waited for water at an outdoor playground by forming a double-file queue — one that followed the winding chalk lines drawn up by shelter workers. One Fukushima City supermarket was set to open on Monday at 10 a.m. The first customers showed up at 7. Soon, several hundred were waiting to buy rice, instant noodles and other goods. The store manager, Hidenori Chonan, said the store didn‟t have many supplies left — and electricity had already cut out.

“We don‟t know when the next supply would come,” Chonan said. “We are selling all products at [discounted prices] and losing money. But at a time like this we help each other.”

“We have security to avoid confusion, but there is no sign of people trying to break into our store, or anything like that,” Chonan said. “Of course some complain about lining up or having limits on how much they can buy, but we all know what the situation is and we all feel each other‟s pain.”

Indeed, while Japan in recent days has lost much of its infrastructure and refined lifestyle — and far too many of its people — the country has retained its decorum (good manners, modesty).

The island nation has responded to a pileup of catastrophes in a way that reflects both its peculiarities and strengths. There‟s a ferryboat sitting atop a house in the tsunami-ravaged town of Otsuchi. But at shelters across the country, shoes are neatly removed at the entrance and the trash is sorted by recycling type.

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In the 72 hours since the earthquake and tsunami, relief workers and a global television audience are marveling at Japan‟s stoicism, its ability to fight once-in-a-century mayhem (chaos, havoc) with order.

Outside the devastation zone, much of the nation followed the nonstop news coverage on public broadcast channel NHK, where the measured tone acts as a reflection of its viewers.

Twitter users retold stories of where the stranded and homeless shared rice balls. Travelers heading north reported 10-hour car rides — with no honking. At a convenience store in one battered coastal prefecture (district), a store manager turned to a private electrical generator. When the generator stopped working and the cash register could no longer open, customers who had been waiting in line quietly returned their items to the shelves.

Japan has one of the world‟s most rigid social contracts. Consensus drives decision-making and provides the foundation of a peaceful, homogenous society. In recent years this has also meant that tough political decisions on debt-curbing measures and trade liberalization get made too slowly, or not at all. Japan‟s youth sometimes complain that the system prevents self-expression, and even most bloggers and social media users maintain anonymous handles.

Be that as it may, these days of disaster have illustrated, once again, the power of Japan‟s unique approach to adversity — and to life.

“We value harmony over individualism,” said Minoru Morita, a well-known Tokyo-based political commentator. “We grow up being taught that we shouldn‟t do anything we are ashamed of. It is these ideas that make us.”

Branigin reported from Washington. Staff writers Rick Maese and special correspondent Erin Cox, in Fukushima, contributed to this report.

Japan’s victims struggle to understand what’s happened

By Rick Maese, Monday, March 14, 1:21 PM (Adapted from http://www.washingtonpost.com )

SOMA, Japan — The second his mother takes her eyes off him, the 3-year-old boy darts across the room, a gymnasium near city hall that serves as a temporary home

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to about 500 newly homeless Japanese. He weaves around the older evacuees and leaps over small stacks of blankets. Tanaka Yurie quickly gives chase, smiling the entire way.

In a sense, Yurie figures, little Somo and his 2-year-old sister, Mao, saved her life. She had walked out the door Friday just a few minutes before the tsunami washed over her home town of Minamisoma, about 25 miles south of Soma and among the areas hit hardest by last week‟s disasters.

“If I hadn‟t gone to pick them up from preschool, I would have been swallowed whole by waves,” said Yurie, 25.

That relief has carried her through the days that followed. But for Yurie and thousands of other victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, processing all that has happened has not been easy. And with regular aftershocks shaking the nation and the looming threat of problems from Japan‟s unstable nuclear power plants, fear is still the overwhelming emotion for many.

Yurie was able to return to Minamisoma over the weekend to check on her home. Seven people had lived there, including the parents and grandparents of her husband, a fisherman. The house had been in his family for 40 years and, as happened to many in the town of about 75,000 people, it had vanished.

“It was like nothing was ever there,” she said. “I couldn‟t cry. The shock was too big. I didn‟t know how to react.” The aftermath

The people in Soma‟s largest shelter don‟t bat an eye when a strong aftershock shakes the building. But when the intercom starts blaring, they listen intently. The announcements rarely bring good news. One on Monday afternoon invited anyone interested in surveying bodies, so they could identify any family members, to report to the front of the building and board a bus.

Although more than three days have passed since the magnitude-9 quake, the threat of danger is ever present.

Inada Shinobu, 55, was watching television at home Monday morning when the government issued a tsunami warning and ordered an evacuation. Shinobu grabbed only her wallet and cellphone and drove her white Honda away from the coast. She parked alongside highway 115, a winding mountain road that connects Soma with Fukushima, waiting for the threat to pass.

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“You just get used to it,” she said. “It has always been, „In the next 30 years, there will be a big earthquake off the coast.‟ So, in one sense, we have always had fear.” Because of the severity of the earthquake, the people parked on either side of road along with her did not know when or whether they would return to the homes that they just abandoned.

“So we grabbed everything we could,” said Satoshi Murata, standing behind his Nissan hatchback.

“But I‟ve forgotten a lot of things,” said his wife, Noriko, noting that a wallet with all their credit cards had gotten left behind.

Among the things they remembered to carry: changes of clothes, five packs of tissues, 50 pairs of chopsticks and a few apples.

To compound matters, within minutes of the tsunami warning, radio reports began to discuss a blast at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, about 45 miles away. The announcer urged people to turn off their air conditioners, roll up car windows and remain indoors, if possible.

The tsunami warning was soon lifted, but the threat of complications from the nation‟s unstable nuclear power plants remains. Few answers for the future

Rumors and speculation spread rapidly, and numbers and details change constantly. There are few definitive answers. Most of the people in the shelters and throughout the region have no idea what tomorrow brings, let alone next week or next month.

There is no routine, and life has become a series of distractions. People pass the time playing cards, reading newspapers and waiting.

Shigeo Kikuchi read the sports page of a newspaper, his big, blue rubber boots not far away. Kikuchi, 47, lived and worked on Matsukawa-ura Bay on the eastern edge of Soma.

His home was on the beach, and he made a living processing seaweed from a cove that extended from his property. With no wife and no kids, that home and that job were his life.

“It‟s gone,” he said. “It is hopeless.”

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The damage is too severe to return, Kikuchi said. Seaweed season ends in a couple of weeks, and the water is too dirty to produce any profits. He doesn‟t know what he will do for a paycheck or where he will live.

“I guess I have to look for work somewhere,” Kikuchi said. “I don‟t know where, and I don‟t know when.” maeser@washpost.com

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