For so many quake survivors, trying to cremate loved ones killed in last week's Great East Japan Earthquake has added to their already-heavy burden.
For so many quake survivors, trying to cremate loved ones killed in last week's Great East Japan Earthquake has added to their already-heavy burden.
Funerals in Japan can often be elaborate affairs stretching for days. They are filled with strict customs and traditions, and bring family members and friends together from across the country.
But the bereaved in devastated areas of northern Japan, where funeral homes were also damaged by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake or subsequent tsunami, are content to say farewell in a more humble manner.
Yet even this can prove impossible.
The number of casualties is increasing rapidly, and the lack of facilities to hold a formal funeral often means that a crematorium in a neighboring municipality is the location for a final farewell.
In Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, town officials have begun accepting applications from family members who want to cremate the dead.
However, the family members themselves have to transport the body to the crematorium.
Tatsuro Sato, 32, a company employee in Sendai, cremated his mother March 16 night in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, the municipality to the west of Minami-Sanriku. Because his other relatives are also victims of the earthquake, Sato's former classmates who live in Tokyo and Yamagata Prefecture were the only ones to pay their last respects.
"I was prepared to say farewell by myself," Sato said. "I am thankful that I had my friends with me."
Sato's mother was at the family home in Minami-Sanriku when the tsunami hit. Unable to contact his mother, Sato returned home two days after the earthquake. He found his mother buried amid rubble in what had been the first-floor bedroom.
Sato transported his mother's body in a 2-meter coffin to the town morgue, using the car of his former classmate from Tokyo.
"He happily agreed to do it even though he doesn't have much gasoline," Sato said. "I wanted many people at her funeral, but I feel I was able to do the minimum expected of me."
Minami-Sanriku had a population of about 18,000, but the number of dead and missing in the municipality has already exceeded 250. More than half of the town's residents continue with their evacuation.
Town government officials said the town will pay for the cremation costs at an evacuation center, but they also explained other procedures.
"Bereaved family members have to transport the body," one official said. "Also bring along something to hold the ashes. A bag or anything will do."
Others suggested a number of bodies should be transported at the same time, considering the overall lack of gasoline.
Masahiro Sato, 44, of Minami-Sanriku, said he wants to cremate his father, but he has no means of transporting the body.
"Two cars were destroyed because of the tsunami," Sato said. "Someone stole the gasoline. There is nothing I can do."
With the death toll rising, there is a limit to the number of bodies that can be cremated.
Town government officials are considering using town-owned land to bury unidentified bodies or others if surviving family members so desire.
"The major precondition is cremation, but we are also restricted by time. It is a very difficult decision," Mayor Jin Sato said.
(This article was written by Hikari Maruyama and Kazuyuki Ito.)