Emperor visits disaster zone

Associated Press

TOKYO

Japan’s respected emperor visited the country’s earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged disaster zone for the first time Thursday as frustration rose over the nation’s inability to gain control over a crisis at a nuclear plant crippled by the twin disasters.

Even as the month-old emergency dragged on, radiation levels dropped enough for police sealed in white protective suits, goggles and blue gloves to begin searching for bodies amid the muddy debris inside a six-mile radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that had been off-limits.

Authorities believe up to 1,000 bodies are lodged in the debris. Overall, the bodies of only about 13,500 of the more than 26,000 people believed killed in the March 11 disaster have been recovered.

In Asahi, where 13 people were killed and some 3,000 homes damaged, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko got their first look at the devastation, somberly gazing at a plot of land where a home once stood and commiserating with evacuees at two shelters.

The royal couple kneeled on mats to speak quietly with the survivors, who bowed in gratitude and wiped away tears. One evacuee with Down syndrome, who has trouble speaking, wrote “I will keep striving” in a small notebook that he showed to the emperor and empress. Asahi is about 55 miles east of Tokyo.

Nearly 140,000 people are still living in shelters after losing their homes or being advised to evacuate because of concerns about radiation.