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[h=4]Ceremonies, silence mark 5th anniversary of Japan tsunami[/h]Japan remembers the infamous tsunami which struck five years ago
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Japanese gathered in Tokyo and along the country's ravaged northeast coast to observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. Friday, exactly five years after a magnitude 9.0-earthquake struck offshore and triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more t AP
Mark Kanekita and Sadakuni Ito throw flowers into the sea on the shore to offer prayers for victims at tsunami-devastated Abraham, coastal district of Sendai, northern Japan, at 2.46 p.m. on March 11, 2016.(Photo: KIMIMASA MAYAMA, EPA)
TOKYO – Japan marked the fifth anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in its history Friday with solemn memorials and a nationwide moment of silence.
Walls of water 30 feet high or more devastated towns and villages along hundreds of miles of rugged coastline and caused a partial meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It also helped to bring down a government and brought lasting changes to Japanese society.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led a nationally televised remembrance ceremony in the capital Friday attended by 82-year-old Emperor Akihito and 81-year-old Empress Michiko. The frail but beloved Imperial couple helped console a grieving nation by visiting emergency shelters and evacuation centers in the days and weeks following the disaster, which killed nearly 20,000 people.
Abe expressed sympathy for the victims and said the lessons of March 11, 2011, would contribute to global disaster preparedness.
"Japan will continue to show the world the lessons learned from (the disaster) and the way we are recovering," he said.
Akihito paid tribute to both survivors and victims and said that while much progress had been made, much work remained.
“It is important that everyone’s hearts continue to be with the afflicted, so that each and every person in difficulty, without exception, will be able to get back their normal lives as soon as possible,” he said.
Schools, businesses, government offices and even Tokyo’s vast subway and train system came to a halt at 2:46 p.m.local time<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Friday, the exact moment that the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck about 40 miles off Japan’s northeast coast. Bells<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rang and citizens<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bowed their heads nationwide during a minute of silence.
The Great East Japan Earthquake was one of the strongest quakes ever recorded and triggered towering waves that overwhelmed levees and seawalls and climbed as high as 90 feet in the coves and narrow valleys that dot the coastline. It inundated the international airport at Sendai, more than mile inland.
The waves also triggered a partial meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and forced the evacuation of some 160,000 people from the surrounding area.
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Nearly 60,000 evacuees remain in temporary housing across the disaster zone, mostly in pre-fabricated units originally intended to last just three years. Many are not expected to return to their homes or move to permanent housing until 2018 at the earliest.
Some 10 million vinyl bags filled with a cubic meter (35 cubic feet) of contaminated dirt have been stacked in the surrounding countryside as part of the massive cleanup effort. The crippled Fukushima plant is being de-commissioned —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a process expected to take at least 40 years.
A bungled early response to the March 11 disaster led to the election defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan in 2012 and the return to power of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
It also led to the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. A district court this week issued an injunction against the restart of reactors at a nuclear power plant in Takahama because of continuing safety concerns.
James D.J. Brown, associate professor and academic program coordinator for international affairs at Temple University's Tokyo Campus, said the disaster has brought lasting changes to Japan's energy policy.
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"Prior to the disaster, Japan depended on nuclear energy for approximately 30% of its electricity and the government planned to increase this to 40%. As a result of the earthquake and consequent nuclear disaster, however, all of Japan's nuclear plants were shut down and the country's energy policy had to be completely rewritten," Brown said.
"Although the ruling LDP remains staunchly pro-nuclear, the public is now deeply skeptical about this source of power," he said.
The swift response to the disaster by Japan’s self-defense forces and the U.S. military also helped to boost the image of the armed forces among Japan’s largely pacifist public.
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