Two months later, whereabouts of 9,500 still unknown (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Kyodo

More than two months after a devastating earthquake and tsunami ravaged the Tohoku region, about 9,500 people remain unaccounted for.

Police and Self-Defense Forces personnel continue to search the wrecked areas, but as time passes fewer bodies are being found. Identifying bodies is also proving difficult, as the extreme force of the tsunami stripped victims of clothes, IDs and jewelry.

At a temporary burial site on a hill in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, the graves of unidentified victims are marked only with numerals written in kanji.

Of some 330 victims buried there, about 30 have yet to be identified. The small bunches of flowers placed on their graves by municipal officials have started to wither, in sad contrast to the vivid flowers and offerings of food and drinks placed next to grave markers of deceased who have been identified.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110515a3.html

[marmar]

1. So sad. ....... Impossible for those family members to get any peace of mind.

nt

[madmax]

2. Very sad and very heartbreaking

but, the obvious answer is that they were swept away to the sea. I'm sure the military and volunteers have worked hard to find them and it they aren't somewhere on land well... It's a shame but, it happens airplane cashes, Titanic, 9/11, wars...