2,383 disaster victims identified by DNA analysis: surve

SENDAI (Kyodo) -- A total of 2,383 victims or about 15 percent of people who died in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures have been identified by DNA analysis, a survey by the National Police Agency showed Thursday.

Amid difficulties in identifying the victims as they were mostly people who died in the tsunami and many bodies were found after a lengthy period, police have collected DNA samples from more than 7,000 family members of missing victims and built a database.

According to the NPA, the number of victims found in the three hardest-hit prefectures in northeastern Japan totaled 15,773 as of Dec. 11 and 15,104 of them were identified. Of the 2,383 victims identified by DNA analysis, 2,245 were identified with help by physicality, teeth marks and belongings such as driver's licenses, while the other 138 were identified only by DNA analysis with their hair or other tissues remaining, the agency said.

With about 500 medical examiners and other officers sent from across the country to disaster-hit regions at the peak, about 1,500 officers worked to identify the victims.Police in the three prefectures also posted physicality, belongings and other information on unidentified victims on their websites, while police stations displayed the victims' photos taken in morgues to enable people to view them.

Nearly 10 months have passed since the disaster, but the three prefectural police departments plan to continue their search for the missing.

In Fukushima Prefecture, police conducted a search Thursday in the town of Namie from where residents are still mostly evacuated due to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

As 669 victims have yet to be identified, a Miyagi prefectural police official said while DNA analysis of such a large number of people is unusual, they would make efforts to identify more victims in order to return remains to their families.

(Mainichi Japan) December 30, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111230p2g00m0dm015000c.html