9 tsunami victims’ remains misidentified, given to wrong families

A Japanese newspaper has uncovered that there was a misidentification of the bodies of nine tsunami disaster victims, and thus returned to the wrong families. Japan’s National Police Agency told the Yomiuri Shimbun that in their efforts to return the remains to relatives looking for closure as quickly as possible, they did not allow enough time for a thorough examination of dental and DNA records.

The authorities say eight those incorrectly identified were from different towns in Iwate Prefecture, consisting of one man and seven women, all in ages from their 60s to 90s. The ninth was found in Miyagi Prefecture, and police say it was given to family looking for a 78 year old man almost immediately after the March 11th, 2011 disasters. In the first month alone after the earthquake and tsunami, roughly 13,000 bodies were taken to makeshift morgues in order to be identified. Police officers, doctors, and dentists were among those confronting the task, but there was often little power or water supplies, and the greatest hurdle was that so many dental and medical records were lost in the tsunami‘s waves.

Because of these circumstances, some bodies were given to families who insisted that they had found and identified their missing relatives. The misidentifications were discovered when the real families of those given away came to police after seeing photos taken of those who were at the morgues. The issue was corrected and the police of Iwate had given apologies to all the families involved by August, as well as got the remains back to their correct relatives.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

http://japandailypress.com/9-tsunami-victims-remains-misidentified-given-to-wrong-families-0617906