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Japan falls silent a month after tsunami

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-11 17:16

 

Victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami observe a minute of silence at 14:46 local time at a shelter in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, April 11, 2011, to mark the one month anniversary of the deadly quake which triggered the tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan. The massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake, which struck at 14:46 local time, and tsunami on March 11 left 28,000 people dead or missing in Japan and the country struggling to cope with the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.[Photo/Agencies]

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its president, Masataka Shimizu, went to Fukushima prefecture Monday to relay his gratitude and apologies. He did not speak to the press there. Shimizu recently spent eight days in the hospital with dizziness and high blood pressure, but has since returned to work. At TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, hundreds of employees bowed their heads for a moment of silence at 2:46.

As workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi struggle to remove contaminated water that has prevented them from restoring cooling systems, the search for bodies along the coast continues. More than 14,000 people are still listed as missing.

Japanese and U.S. troops fanned out along the coast for another all-out search by land, air and sea on Sunday managed to find 103 bodies.

Just 13,000 deaths have been confirmed so far, and many bodies have likely washed out to sea and will never be found.

Japan's government marked the anniversary Monday by placing an ad in newspapers in China, South Korea, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, a letter from Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanking people around the world for the outpouring of support that followed the tsunami. The Red Cross alone said it has collected $107 million (9.1 billion yen) from overseas.

Kan described the outpouring as "kizuna," the bond of friendship, and said that with the help of the global community, Japan would come back stronger than ever.

"We deeply appreciate the kizuna our friends from around the world have shown and I want to thank every nation, entity, and you personally, from the bottom of my heart."

Hosaka reported from Kamaishi. Associated Press Writers Jay Alabaster in Natori and Shino Yuasa, Mari Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.