Japan pauses at time of 2011 quake

Associated Press

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan

For 70-year-old Toshiko Murakami, memories of the terrifying earthquake and tsunami that destroyed much of her seaside town and swept away her sister brought fresh tears Sunday, exactly a year after the disaster.

“My sister is still missing, so I can’t find peace within myself,” she said before attending a ceremony in a tent in Rikuzentaka marking the anniversary of the March 11, 2011, disaster that killed just over 19,000 people and unleashed the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter-century.

Across Japan, people paused at 2:46 p.m. — the moment the magnitude-9.0 quake struck a year ago — for moments of silence, prayer and reflection about the enormous losses suffered and monumental tasks ahead.

Japan must rebuild dozens of ravaged coastal communities, shut down the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and decontaminate radiated land so it is inhabitable again.

These are enormous burdens on a country already straining under the weight of an aging, shrinking population, bulging national debt and an economy that’s been stagnant for two decades.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reminded the Japanese people that they have overcome many disasters and difficulties in the past and pledged to rebuild the nation so it will be “reborn as an even better place.”