KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Work is well under way here to dismantle a stranded fishing boat that has served as a powerful reminder of the 2011 tsunami disaster.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Work is well under way here to dismantle a stranded fishing boat that has served as a powerful reminder of the 2011 tsunami disaster.
The No. 18 Kyotoku Maru was swept 750 meters inland from the port after the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
Operators have already removed the engine and are now using heavy machinery to tear apart the structure of the 330-ton vessel.
About 60 percent of the entire process has been finished, according to the private organization that was commissioned to do the task by the ship owner.
The work, which began on Sept. 9, is expected to be completed this month.
The city government had hoped to preserve the vessel as a memorial to the disaster.
But the owner, based in Iwaki in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture, decided to have the ship dismantled because so many residents viewed it as a painful reminder of their loss.