The remains of 83 people who perished in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami remain unidentified in the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima four years after the disaster, with boxes holding the remains temporarily placed at temples and cemeteries.
At the administrative office of the Kuzuoka Boen cemetery park in Sendai's Aoba Ward, three investigators from Miyagi Prefectural Police and Sendai city officials offered bouquets of white lilies and other flowers in front of boxes holding the remains at 10 a.m. on March 10, pressing their hands together as they vowed to identify the victims. The smell of incense sticks was wafting in the air inside the 10-tatami-mat room.
Two of the boxes bear pieces of paper reading "57-RC4" and "55-RA1," respectively. The boxes contain partial remains of victims still unidentified, which were retrieved from the sea and other locations in the wake of the March 11, 2011 disaster. The three police officers, including 61-year-old inspector Yoshihiro Konno, are members of an eight-strong investigative team dedicated to identifying the remains.
As of March 3, Miyagi Prefectural Police had identified the bodies of 9,519 disaster victims, but the remains of 18 people still remain unidentified. Apart from those, there are partial remains -- such as hands and legs -- of about 80 people yet to be identified. Those remains are tentatively placed at 10 locations in the prefecture.
"We get fewer and fewer pieces of information year by year. The creative ability of investigators is being tested," said a senior prefectural police official. Recently, the team managed to identify some of the victims from the initials of a repairer on the back cover of a watch, as well as the production records of artificial teeth.
In November 2012, the team received a letter and 30,000 yen as a donation from a sender who only identified themself as "Southern Cross." "I couldn't do anything after the quake disaster, so I am sending this hoping to offer you something warm to consume. It's the least I could do," read the letter.
A woman living in Mima, Tokushima Prefecture, also sent in donations to the team on seven separate occasions. "I would appreciate it if you could use the money -- though little -- to offer flowers or something (to unidentified victims)," read one of her letters. "My heart aches when I think of the feelings of the relatives of those still unaccounted for," went another letter of hers.
Toshiaki Seki, 80, a resident of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, donated cash to the investigative unit in January 2013 after learning about it in a newspaper article. "I have a friend living in Sendai, and the disaster is not someone else's business. I wanted to express my feelings of gratitude to the investigators," he told the Mainichi.
The team has thus far received a total of some 270,000 yen in contributions, arriving on 12 separate occasions. The prefectural police force has used all of the money to offer flowers to the unidentified victims.
Wednesday 11 March 2015
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150311p2a00m0na013000c.html
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