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(Image Source: Los Angeles Times)
BY LUCAS GEISLER
Japanese people across the globe observed the two year anniversary of the tsunami that
rocked the country’s eastern border Monday.
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami
killed more than 15,000 people and caused 35 billion dollars in property loss. Waves
as tall as 124 feet battered Japan’s coast, destroying more than 45,000 buildings.
(Via
National Geographic)
ABC mentions the ceremony held in Tokyo.
“...Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko joined victims in attendance, bowing their
heads at 2:46 p.m. local time, the moment the...quake struck.”
Los Angeles held its own remembrance service outside the L.A. Police Department building
Sunday. According to the LA Times...
“One sign asked the crowd to write messages to
residents of the still-reeling Tohoku area. ‘Many of them often mention...what they
are really scared of,’ it said. It’s, ‘To be forgotten.”
Japan will spend
25 trillion yen, or $262 billion, on reconstruction in the next five years in a rebuilding effort
that’s been criticized for its slow pace. The Guardian says...
“Two years on,
more than 300,000 people are still living within temporary accommodation, and practically
no rebuilding has taken place near areas where whole communities once stood, now flattened
swaths of land blanketed in grass and weeds.”
But a BBC analyst says there’s a reason why
it’s taking so long. “They’re trying to get every community
to reach a consensus on how the rebuilding should take place, but it is now an awful
long time since the tsunami, two years. You would have expected something to have begun
by now.”
And let’s not forget the nuclear radiation still around Fukushima also
stopping people from returning to their homes...
On Monday, 800 residents of northeast
Japan filed a lawsuit against nuclear plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company. One
of the claimants tells the Telegraph why they are filing this suit.
“We’re angry
at the government for failing to help us. Many people have suffered, with suicide,
depression and financial problems. We want our lives back to how they were before the
disaster.”