JAPAN: ONE YEAR AFTER 3/11

JAPAN MARKS 1 YEAR SINCE QUAKE, TSUNAMI DISASTER

Malcolm Foster

Associated Press, March 11, 2012

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (AP) — People across Japan prayed and stood in silence on Sunday to remember the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world's worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century.

In the devastated northeastern coastal town of Rikuzentakata, a siren sounded at 2:46 p.m. — 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 Theater, 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.

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