Japan marks one month since double disaster

Japan today marks a month since the triple disaster that devastated the country’s northeast and sparked the worst nuclear emergency in 25 years, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowing to “not abandon the survivors”.

All activities across Japan will be halted at 14:46 (local time), the moment the largest earthquake in Japan's history occurred, which then led to a series of catastrophic human and material consequences, putting the whole world in fear of a nuclear disaster because many reactors of the nuclear power plant were affected by the earthquake/tsunami.

With about 13,000 people confirmed dead and 15,000 still missing, it is Japan's worst tragedy since World War II.

Prime Minister Kan on his third visit to the earthquake-hit northern region
and devastating tsunami. Photo: Internet

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged yesterday to “never abandon survivors”, as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite the intensifying battle at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant. He spoke as he arrived in the earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged northern region on his third visit to the area.

Prime Minister Kan told local residents that the government would do everything it could to help them. The Japanese leader also spoke with Japanese and US military officials, praising their cooperation.

Kan's visit comes as US and Japanese forces launch a second effort to search for survivors of the 15,000 people still listed as missing after the March 11 disaster.

A Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said that about 22,000 Japanese troops and 110 U.S. troops will participate in the operation. They will have to thoroughly search the disaster area on land and underwater. In addition, many bodies may be washed into the sea by the waves. In this case, the military will not cross the boundary of the restricted access area around the Fukushima I nuclear power plant, where radiation is leaking.

There are still thousands of bodies that have not been found. There are still thousands of bodies that have not been collected around the Fukushima I nuclear plant because it is located in a high radiation area, where people are prohibited from entering.

Police have only just begun to retrieve bodies, but with great caution because the bodies are radioactive and must be decontaminated before cremation.

A day earlier, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kajeda visited the disaster area. Kajeda later told reporters in Tokyo that working conditions at the Fukushima I plant had improved, but warned that the crisis was still far from being resolved.

After China and South Korea expressed concerns, on April 10, Mr. Kan expressed “regret” that Tokyo had not been more transparent in reporting information about radioactive water dumped into the sea.

As Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) apologized to neighboring countries, in Jakarta, Japanese Foreign Minister Satoru Sato sought to reassure Southeast Asia about the amount of radiation in the seawater.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, thousands of people marched against nuclear power yesterday. Protesters carrying anti-nuclear banners marched past the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which develops and regulates nuclear power, and the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company, the power company that owns the badly damaged Fukushima plant. But the atmosphere of the march was more like a carnival, according to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri. Most of the protesters were in their 20s or 30s, and there was live music from a band.

According to Dan Tri