One month to the day after Japan was devastated by the tsunami that left 25,000 dead

Mangalore Today News Network

    * Tremors struck as country prepared to remember the dead
    * Crippled nuclear plant evacuated after latest seismic activity
    * Government pledges to do all it can to help survivors
    * Frustrations increasing among residents of Fukushima exclusion zone
    * Nuclear officials admit they cannot offer end date for plant crisis
    * Evacuation zone around stricken plant could be expanded due to accumulation of radiation

A tsunami warning was issued for an hour after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Iwaki in Fukushima province, a month after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan’s north-east coast.

Buddhist monks, Japan Self-Defense Force personnel firefighters and other relief workers observe a moment of silence today in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, with scenes of the devastation still evident

The latest quake came as sombre ceremonies were planned today to mark one month passing since the tragedy.

And there are fears it could have catastrophic ramifications for the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The plant has since been evacuated, although its operator said no nuclear damage has been reported after this latest burst of seismic activity.

A warning was issued for a 3-foot tsunami, the same as after another 7.1 aftershock that shook the northeast coast last week, but was lifted after about an hour.

The U.S. Geological Survey said today’s very shallow quake was centred 14 miles northeast of the town of Iwaki, to the south of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

The Pacific Tsunami Center said the quake would had not triggered a widespread tsunami that could reach the U.S. and Canadian West coasts but could cause a local one.

People at a large electronics store in central Sendai screamed and ran outside during today’s incident, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.

There were no new reports of damage. Aftershocks have repeatedly rattled the disaster-weary region, but there is little left in the northeast to ruin.

 

Tsunami and earthquake survivors commemorate the victims with a moment of silence under an awning to avoid the radioactive rain at exactly 2:46pm local time

Daisuke Koizumi, a 30-year-old Ishinomaki Fire Department firefighter, prays as he searches for the missing, including three fellow firefighters, while young boys pray for the victims atTsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture

Last Thursday’s 7.1-magnitude aftershock, which had been the strongest tremor since the day the original quake hit, did sink hundreds of thousands more households into darkness, however. Most of that electricity has been restored.

Buildings shook and Tokyo’s main international airport briefly shut both of its runways, but there have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries after the latest quake, which comes as Japan reflected on the devastation wreaked by last month’s disaster.

However, thousands of bodies are yet to be found, a tsunami-flooded nuclear power plant is still spewing radiation and more than 150,000 people remain living in shelters.

’We offer our deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones,’ chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said today at a brief news conference where he pledged the government would do whatever it could to help survivors and end the nuclear crisis.

’We are sorry for causing inconvenience and difficulties to those who still live in shelters.’

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it generated flattened communities along hundreds of miles of coastline. The government has estimated the cost of damages from the disaster could grow to $310billion.

Memorial: A group of Japanese Shinto priests (on the left) and Buddhist monks at Yugihama Beach during a pray for Japan memorial event in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture

Silent reflection: Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force members in a moment of silence at 2:46 pm, exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture

Two-year-old Ayaka and family members pray her missing grandmother and great-grandmother at a vacant lot where they lived in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture

In an open letter printed in seven newspapers across the globe, Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanked other nations for their help since the disaster.

’Through our own efforts and with the help of the global community, Japan will recover and come back even stronger. We will then repay you for your generous aid,’ he wrote.

’With this in our hearts, we now stand together dedicated to rebuilding the nation.’

Masataka Shimizu, President of Tokyo Electric Power Company which owns the Fukushima nuclear plant (third right) offers a silent prayer for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami

People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46pm, the exact moment of the massive quake a month earlier.

’My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture,’ said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and is home to the damaged plant at the centre of the nuclear crisis. ’I have no words to express my sorrow.’

Chiyoko Sasaki, 67, covers her face as she sees her husband Sueo, 72, in a coffin at a makeshift mortuary in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan

In a devastated coastal neighbourhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead.

Earlier, four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.

In the industrial town of Kamaishi Governor Takuya Tasso led a moment of commemoration as a loud siren rang through a high school gymnasium being used as a shelter. He bowed while people who have lived there since the tsunami kneeled on makeshift futons, bowed their heads and clasped their hands.

The earthquake and tsunami flattened communities along hundreds of miles of coastline. More than 158,000 people are still without electricity and 210,000 have no running water, although some of that is because of the 7.1-magnitude aftershock that rattled the area last Thursday.

’Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news,’ said Marina Seito, 19, a student at a junior college who recalled being in a basement restaurant in Sendai when the earthquake hit. Plates fell and parts of the ceiling crashed down around her.

Adding to the misery is radiation spewing from the Fukushima Daiichi complex 140 miles northeast of Tokyo. The 70,000 to 80,000 people who lived within 12 miles of the plant must stay away from their homes indefinitely.

’We have no future plans. We can’t even start to think about it because we don’t know how long this will last or how long we will have to stay in these shelters,’ said Atsushi Yanai, a 55-year-old construction worker. The tsunami spared his home, but he has to live in a shelter anyway because it is in the evacuation zone.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday that residents of five more communities, some more than 20 miles from the plant, are also being urged to leave because of high levels of radiation.

’This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate immediately,’ Edano said. ’We have decided this measure based on long-term health risks.’

Meanwhile, nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama apologised for the worry and inconvenience caused by the radiation spilling from the plant, where cooling systems disabled by the March 11 tsunami still have not been restored and likely won’t be for several months.

’We’ve done all we could to come this far,’ Mr Nishiyama said yesterday.

’Unfortunately, we still cannot give any timeline for when we can move on to the next phase, but we are hoping to achieve a sustainable cooling system, contain radiation and bring the situation under control as soon as possible.’

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co reiterated that it is not considering entombing the hot reactors in concrete, as was done at Chernobyl in 1986 when a reactor fire burned out of control. Japan’s nuclear crisis is the world’s worst since then.