A joint search by Japan and the United States found 28 bodies on Friday, April 1, the first day of a three-day effort three weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck northeastern Japan, the Defense Ministry said.
A joint search by Japan and the United States found 28 bodies on Friday, April 1, the first day of a three-day effort three weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck northeastern Japan, the Defense Ministry said.
A total of 25,000 SDF and U.S. military personnel are taking part in the effort, employing about 120 aircraft and 60 ships.
The Japanese Self-Defense Force joint operation with the U.S. military and other groups aims to "find as many victims as possible" before the focus shifts to rebuilding, an SDF senior official said.
The search is covering coastal areas in hardest-hit Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, but does not include a 30-kilometer radius from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The search also stretches about 20 kilometers out to sea along the coastline in the three prefectures.
The Ground, Maritime and Air SDF and the U.S. forces are each searching in assigned ground, air and sea areas, as well as in the mouths of major rivers.
The ministry is particularly concerned about deeply indented coastal areas and portions that remain underwater. The coastal zone from Kesennuma, Iwate Prefecture, to Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, was designated as a strategic region.
The Asahi Shimbun estimates more than 18,000 people are still missing in the three prefectures.
"A major reason (for the delay in the search for the missing) is the massive size of the tsunami," Shigeru Iwasaki, Air SDF chief of staff told a news conference Friday. "I believe there are victims in houses that were swept away by the tsunami. We will do our best to recover victims."
While the SDF has deployed 100,000 personnel, its largest force on record, into earthquake-stricken prefectures for search and rescue. It now considers the main focus should be shifted to life support, such as providing food, shelter and bathing facilities, and rebuilding efforts.
"Families are desperate (to find their loved ones)," said a senior official at the Defense Ministry. "We want to produce maximum results while we have this large operation."