Massive search for Japan tsunami victims

SHICHIGAHAMAMACHI – Soldiers prodded marshy ground with slender poles and cleared mounds of rubble by hand yesterday as 25 000 troops mounted Japan’s largest search yet for the bodies of nearly 12 000 people missing in last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

The operation was the third intensive military search since the March 11 disaster, which splintered buildings, flattened towns and killed up to 26 000 people along Japan’s northeastern coast. With waters receding, officials hope the team, which also includes police, 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 across soggy earth and muddy pools, plunging their poles about 60 centimetres into the muck to ensure that they don’t miss any bodies buried below.The search focused on a marsh drained in recent weeks by members of the army’s 22nd infantry regiment using special pump trucks.Several dozen other soldiers cleared mountains of rubble by hand from a waterfront neighbourhood filled with gutted and teetering houses. Four people in the neighborhood were missing, said 67-year-old Sannojo Watanabe.’That was my house right there,’ he said, pointing to a foundation with nothing atop it.He surveyed the neighbourhood: ‘There’s nothing left here.’In all, 370 troops from the regiment were searching for a dozen people still missing from Shichigahamamachi. The regiment had been searching the area with a far smaller contingent, but tripled the number of troops it was using for the two-day intense search, said Colonel Akira Kun itomo, the regimental commander.The search is far more difficult than that for earthquake victims, who would mostly be buried in the rubble, said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the regiment. The tsunami could have left the victims anywhere, or even pulled them out to sea.Bodies found so many weeks after the disaster are likely to be unrecognisable, black and swollen, Ose said.’We wouldn’t even know if they would be male or female,’ he said.A total of 24 800 soldiers – backed by 90 helicopters and planes – were sent to comb through the rubble for buried remains, while 50 boats and 100 navy divers searched the waters up to 20 kilometres off the coast to find those swept out to sea.’It’s been more than a month since the massive earthquake and tsunami, but we still have lots of people still missing,’ Defence Ministry spokesman Norikazu Muratani said. ‘We want to recover them and return them to their families.’More than 14 300 people have been confirmed dead and nearly 11 900 remain missing. The military’s first intense sweep for bodies uncovered 339, while its second turned up 99 more, Muratani said. Numbers for yesterday’s search were not immediately available. – Nampa-AP

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