SHICHIGAHAMAMACHI, Japan (PA) - soldiers pushed swamp with thin poles Monday that 25,000 troops pickled northeast coast of the Japan of the bodies of nearly 12 000 missing persons, in the largest search since last earthquake and tsunami.
The operation was the third intensive military research since the disaster of 11 March, fragmented buildings, cities and killed up to 26 000 people. With hindsight of the waters, officials hope the team, which also includes the police, the coast guard and US troops, will make significant progress during the two-day operation.
In the town of Shichigahamamachi, a line of about two dozen Japanese soldiers walked in unison through the soggy Earth and muddy pools of water, plunging their poles approximately 2 feet (60 centimeters) in the muck to ensure that they lack any body buried below.
The research focused on a marsh drained in recent weeks by members of the infantry regiment 22 of the army with special pump trucks.
In all, 370 soldiers of the regiment were looking for a dozen people still missing from the Shichigahamamachi. The regiment was to research the area with a quota more small, but have tripled the number of soldiers, he was with intense research of two days, said colonel Akira Kun itomo, the Commander of the regiment.
The research is much more difficult than that for the earthquake victims, which would mainly be buried under the rubble, said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the regiment. The tsunami may have left victims anywhere, or even withdrawn their towards the sea.
"We just don't know where are the bodies," he said.
Bodies found both weeks after the disaster are likely to be unrecognizable, black and swollen, dare to say.
"We would not even know if they are male or female," he said.
A total of 24,800 soldiers - supported by 90 helicopters and aircraft - were sent to comb through the rubble of the buried remnants, 50 boats and navy 100 divers searched the waters up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast to find those swept out to sea.
"Since more than a month the severe earthquake and tsunami, but we have still a lot of missing persons," Ministry of defence spokesman Norikazu Muratani said. "We want to recover and return to their families."
More than 14 300 people have been confirmed dead and almost 11,900 are still missing. First intense scanning of the Army being for body discovered 339, while his second place 99 Muratani, said. Numbers in the search for Monday were not immediately available.
After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, body found along the Indonesian coast for several months later as people cleared debris in reconstruction efforts. However, 37,000 of 164 000 people who died in Indonesia simply disappeared, their bodies washed likely to the sea.
Last week, two underwater robots provided by the Institute of International Rescue non-profit systems has conducted research for five days in the waters off the coast of the northeastern coast of the Japan, near three devastated towns.
Robots are cars, houses and other debris in the sea, but no body, said Mika Murata, an official of the Institute.
The Japanese Government has been criticized for his response to the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster, with some members of the opposition of the country, urging Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign.
The members of the party in power of the Kan has won only three of the ten elections in the course of the weekend, mainly for local government positions.
The losses came two weeks after the Party of the Kan has lost nearly 70 seats in an election for prefectural assemblies.
Monday, Kan said in a sometimes hostile Parliament that his Government all that its possible to take control of the radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power, which led the Government to evacuate residents of a (12-mile) zone of 20 kilometres around paralyzed reactors.
"The nuclear accident is still underway," he said. "The priority is now to stabilize it."
Associated Press writer Shino Yuasa contributed to this report.
Copyright ? 2011 the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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