Japan launches a massive search for tsunami body - Associated Press

Japan launches a massive tsunami bodies (PA) research - 4 hours ago

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 The tsunami may have left victims anywhere, or even withdrawn their towards the sea.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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CA tsunami victim bathes in Oregon

Dustin Douglas Weber of California was swept to the sea by the tsunami of JapanHe was photographed bodies of monthWeber last thrust was found on a beach in Oregon near the Columbia River

(CNN) - the body of an elderly man of 25 years of the Northern California swept sea while attempting to photograph the arrival of the tsunami of the Japan last month was washed ashore about 380 kilometres away, in Oregon, officials there said Tuesday.

Dustin Douglas Weber of Klamath, California, stood upright on a sandbank near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, California, when he was away on 11 March, the authorities said.

He was with two friends who also were swept away by the wave, but were able to return safely to shore, said authorities.

Weber has been identified by a judicial dentistry with dental records, said Eugene Gray, administrator in the Office of Oregon state medical examiner.

His body was found on the South shore of the Columbia River in Oregon on April 2 by a person walking from the beach, Gray told CNN.

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Dark ceremonies mark 1 month since the tsunami in the Japan - Associated Press

Dark ceremonies mark 1 month since Japan tsunami (PA) - 26 minutes ago

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (PA) - dark ceremonies and moments of silence were planned Monday to mark a month since the severe earthquake and the tsunami that devastated the northeast coast of the Japan, killing all 25 000 people.

But with thousands of bodies still to be found, a tsunami flooded nuclear power still spewing radiation and more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time for reflection on the worst disaster in the Japan since the second world war.

Some families took a preliminary step towards normality moving in houses temporary boxy, gray in this port city pulverized by the wave on 11 March.

When a lottery, the lucky first to this weekend. Each unit is only 320 square feet (30 square meters), but replete with modern comforts such as televisions, refrigerators, microwaves and washing - machines a welcome upgrade for the homeless, whose many slept on floors of gyms in the school for a month.

So far, there are 36 houses - one for each 50 candidates.

"It's a mystery how we have been lucky enough to be chosen." "It's like a dream," said Sakai Sasaki, 80, who lived with relatives.

The city wants to complete 400 units in eight different locations in mid-May, although it will always cover only about one-quarter of families in need. Other areas have similar plans, but the Rikuzentakata units are the first to be completed.

"When you think about feelings of the evacuees, we want to build their even one day more rapid, or make only one more," said Saeki Suga, an official responsible for the housing of the city plan.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the tsunami that it generated flattened communities along hundreds of kilometres of coastline. The Government has estimated as the cost of damages resulting from the disaster could grow to $ 310 billion.

Ahead of the anniversary of a month, Hidehiko Nishiyama nuclear security official apologized for the concern and inconvenience caused by radiation spilling plant of Fukushima Dai-ichi, where disabled by the tsunami of cooling systems even if it have not been reduced and will likely not be for several months.

"We did all we could come to the extreme," Nishiyama, said Sunday. "" "". Unfortunately, we still cannot give any timeline when we can move on to the next phase, but we hope to achieve a cooling system sustainable, contain radiation and make the situation under control as soon as possible. ?

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. reiterated Sunday that he is not considering burying the hot concrete reactors, as did Chernobyl in 1986 when a reactor fire burned out of control. The Japan nuclear crisis is worse in the world since then.

The crisis caused several anti-nuclear demonstrations, but among the most important were held, Sunday, in a district of Tokyo where many students live. Thousands of people bearing signs "No nukes" gathered for a rally and then marched through the streets chanting and beating drums. Elsewhere in the capital, about 140 miles (220 kilometres) southwest of Fukushima Dai-ichi, demonstrators demanding the closure of a different plant also chanted "fukushima" as they walk through of the seat of the Government and past the nuclear and industrial safety agency.

Sunday also saw Japanese and American troops fan along the coast for another search all azimuth of organs by land, sea and air.

Television news showed heavy lift inland the tsunami washed boat so that they could find a car crushed under. No one was inside.

The Japanese military said Monday that us and Japanese troops find 103 bodies during the operation of a day, more than 70 they located in a three-day surge with more troops a week ago.

Only 13 000 deaths have been confirmed for the moment, and many organizations have probably washed out at sea and will never be found.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has visited a city hard fishing Sunday and promised to help Government. It also stops to thank us troops for their efforts, particularly in the search for bodies.

"I thank sincerely you for your generous help, you have given us since the earthquake,", said the Prime Minister, whose Government has had disagreements with Washington on the relocation of a US base in the Japan.

Assistance "strengthens the relationship between the Japan and the United States." I will never forget your kindness for the rest of my life, "Kan said in comments by the Kyodo News Agency."

Yuasa reported Tokyo. Associated press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Mayumi Saito and producer of new Miles Edelstein in Tokyo and writer Jay Alabaster in Rikuzentakata has contributed to this report.

Copyright ? 2011 the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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