Japanese police are racing to find thousands of missing bodies before they decompose along a stretch of tsunami-pummelled coast that has been largely off-limits because of a radiation-leaking nuclear plant.
Nearly a month after a 9.0 earthquake generated the tsunami along Japan's north-eastern coast, more than 14,700 people are still missing. Many of those may have been washed out to sea and will never be found.
In the days just after the March 11 disaster, searchers gingerly picked through mountains of tangled debris, hoping to find survivors.
Heavier machinery has since been called in, but unpredictable tides of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex have slowed progress and often forced authorities to abandon the search, especially within a 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. Officials now say there is not much time left to find and identify the dead, and are ramping up those efforts.
"We have to find bodies now as they are decomposing," said Ryoichi Tsunoda, a police spokesman in Fukushima prefecture, where the plant is located. "This is a race against time and against the threat of nuclear radiation."
Up to 25,000 people are believed to have been killed, of which 12,500 have been confirmed.There is expected to be some overlap in the dead and missing tolls because not all of the bodies have been identified.
The government hopes the cleansing and reconstruction will create much-needed jobs for local people in the worst-hit areas, but still needs the agreement of the opposition to finance the plan.
The governor of Miyagi prefecture said it would take three years to clear the debris, while Akira Oikawa, an official in neighbouring Iwate, warned it could take up to five years to get back to normal there.
"Disposal operations are quite complicated as some houses were swept kilometres away," Oikawa said.
"There are also special procedures to be carried out before we can dispose of private property such as cars."
In Fukushima, the situation has been further complicated by a 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the stricken Daiichi nuclear power plant, where it has not even been possible to reach the wreckage.
Elsewhere, survivors are beginning to return to the sites of their former homes to try to find their most treasured belongings - usually photo albums - before the bulldozers arrive.
When Yuka Matsukawa returned to where she used to live in the small coastal city of Higashimatsushima in Miyagi prefecture, she found only the roof and a scattering of her belongings remained - the rest had been taken by the sea.
But the 22-year-old, who this month enrolled at a local college, is philosophical about the disaster.
Nearly a month after a 9.0 earthquake generated the tsunami along Japan's north-eastern coast, more than 14,700 people are still missing. Many of those may have been washed out to sea and will never be found.
In the days just after the March 11 disaster, searchers gingerly picked through mountains of tangled debris, hoping to find survivors.
Heavier machinery has since been called in, but unpredictable tides of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex have slowed progress and often forced authorities to abandon the search, especially within a 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. Officials now say there is not much time left to find and identify the dead, and are ramping up those efforts.
"We have to find bodies now as they are decomposing," said Ryoichi Tsunoda, a police spokesman in Fukushima prefecture, where the plant is located. "This is a race against time and against the threat of nuclear radiation."
Up to 25,000 people are believed to have been killed, of which 12,500 have been confirmed.There is expected to be some overlap in the dead and missing tolls because not all of the bodies have been identified.
The government hopes the cleansing and reconstruction will create much-needed jobs for local people in the worst-hit areas, but still needs the agreement of the opposition to finance the plan.
The governor of Miyagi prefecture said it would take three years to clear the debris, while Akira Oikawa, an official in neighbouring Iwate, warned it could take up to five years to get back to normal there.
"Disposal operations are quite complicated as some houses were swept kilometres away," Oikawa said.
"There are also special procedures to be carried out before we can dispose of private property such as cars."
In Fukushima, the situation has been further complicated by a 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the stricken Daiichi nuclear power plant, where it has not even been possible to reach the wreckage.
Elsewhere, survivors are beginning to return to the sites of their former homes to try to find their most treasured belongings - usually photo albums - before the bulldozers arrive.
When Yuka Matsukawa returned to where she used to live in the small coastal city of Higashimatsushima in Miyagi prefecture, she found only the roof and a scattering of her belongings remained - the rest had been taken by the sea.
But the 22-year-old, who this month enrolled at a local college, is philosophical about the disaster.
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