ID :
170055
Tue, 03/22/2011 - 18:30
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/170055
The shortlink copeid
Over 22,000 dead, missing in quake-hit Japan, bodies buried
TOKYO, March 22 Kyodo - The number of people killed or unaccounted for following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan topped 22,000 on Tuesday, becoming the biggest disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake which is believed have resulted in 105,000 victims, the National Police Agency said.
The death toll reached 9,099 in 12 prefectures, while the number of missing came to 13,786 in six prefectures as of 9 p.m., the NPA said.
In the severely damaged prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, meanwhile, at least 130 children and students from kindergarten to college levels were killed, while around 1,600 remain unaccounted for as of Tuesday morning, according to the education ministry.
The numbers of such child and student fatalities will inevitably rise, as many of them remain missing, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said.
It also said 5,682 schools in 23 prefectures were damaged or submerged, while 3,379 schools in 16 prefectures have been suspended.
The police have so far conducted autopsies on 8,360 bodies, of which some 4,670 have been identified, and among them around 4,150 were returned to their families, according to the NPA.
As a fuel shortage has made cremation difficult, two municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture -- Higashimatsushima and Watari -- started burying identified bodies without cremation, an unusual move in Japan, after gaining consent from their families.
Nine other municipalities in Miyagi as well as Kamaishi and Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, will follow suit.
In Higashimatsushima, 24 bodies were buried Tuesday, but many of them were wrapped in sheets as it was difficult to obtain enough coffins, while four bodies were buried at a temple in Watari, which expects to lay more than 100 bodies eventually.
The Higashimatsushima city government said it has prepared a large tract of land for burial of up to 1,000 bodies.
The two municipalities plan to cremate them probably within two years, officials said.
Meanwhile, 270,000 evacuees, including those who fled areas around the crisis-hit nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, are now staying at about 1,900 shelters in 16 prefectures.
The prefectural government of Osaka started accepting applications from the evacuees for its public housing, which will be offered for free, while Nagasaki Prefecture said it has decided to accommodate some 1,700 evacuees at private hotels and hot spring inns there also for free for up to two months.
Meanwhile, East Japan Railway Co. resumed bullet train services between Morioka and Shin-Aomori stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, while the Tohoku Expressway, one of the major routes for land transport between Tokyo and the quake-hit areas, was opened to trucks.
On the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, operations between Morioka and Nasu-Shiobara stations remained suspended, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said it would take more than one month to restore services on the line.
The death toll reached 9,099 in 12 prefectures, while the number of missing came to 13,786 in six prefectures as of 9 p.m., the NPA said.
In the severely damaged prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, meanwhile, at least 130 children and students from kindergarten to college levels were killed, while around 1,600 remain unaccounted for as of Tuesday morning, according to the education ministry.
The numbers of such child and student fatalities will inevitably rise, as many of them remain missing, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said.
It also said 5,682 schools in 23 prefectures were damaged or submerged, while 3,379 schools in 16 prefectures have been suspended.
The police have so far conducted autopsies on 8,360 bodies, of which some 4,670 have been identified, and among them around 4,150 were returned to their families, according to the NPA.
As a fuel shortage has made cremation difficult, two municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture -- Higashimatsushima and Watari -- started burying identified bodies without cremation, an unusual move in Japan, after gaining consent from their families.
Nine other municipalities in Miyagi as well as Kamaishi and Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, will follow suit.
In Higashimatsushima, 24 bodies were buried Tuesday, but many of them were wrapped in sheets as it was difficult to obtain enough coffins, while four bodies were buried at a temple in Watari, which expects to lay more than 100 bodies eventually.
The Higashimatsushima city government said it has prepared a large tract of land for burial of up to 1,000 bodies.
The two municipalities plan to cremate them probably within two years, officials said.
Meanwhile, 270,000 evacuees, including those who fled areas around the crisis-hit nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, are now staying at about 1,900 shelters in 16 prefectures.
The prefectural government of Osaka started accepting applications from the evacuees for its public housing, which will be offered for free, while Nagasaki Prefecture said it has decided to accommodate some 1,700 evacuees at private hotels and hot spring inns there also for free for up to two months.
Meanwhile, East Japan Railway Co. resumed bullet train services between Morioka and Shin-Aomori stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, while the Tohoku Expressway, one of the major routes for land transport between Tokyo and the quake-hit areas, was opened to trucks.
On the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, operations between Morioka and Nasu-Shiobara stations remained suspended, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said it would take more than one month to restore services on the line.
