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JAPAN NEWS

Engineers pin hopes on polymer to stop nuke leak


07:50 JST April 4: Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant Sunday as officials said it will take several months to bring the crisis under control, the first time they have provided a timetable. Concrete already failed to stop the tainted water spewing from a crack in a maintenance pit, and the new mixture did not appear to be working either, but engineers said they were not abandoning it. The government said Sunday it will be several months before the radiation stops and permanent cooling systems are restored. Even after that happens, there will be years of work ahead to clean up the area around the complex and figure out what to do with it. On Saturday, workers discovered an 8-inch (20-centimeter) crack in a maintenance pit at the plant and said they believe water from it may be the source of some of the high levels of radioactive iodine that have been found in the ocean for more than a week.

Quake-relief donations total 115.4 bil. yen


Total donations received by the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest of Japan for people afflicted by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami stood at 115.4 billion yen as of Saturday, the two charity organizations said Sunday. How the donated money will be shared and distributed to people affected by the natural disaster is likely to be determined by committees to be set up by the prefectural governments affected by the quake. But Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihiro Katayama said the government "will have no alternative but to rely on government bond issuance" to finance reconstruction-related expenses in quake-hit areas. (Kyodo)

Tsunami killed 2 workers at Japan nuke plant


A massive tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant also killed two workers there, the Japanese operator announced Sunday, confirming the first deaths at the complex. The two workers - a 21-year-old and a 24-year-old - had been missing since a massive March 11 earthquake spawned the wave, but their bodies were discovered only last week. Engineers have been scrambling to restore power to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in order to restart cooling systems and stabilize dangerously overheating reactors.

Intensive 3-day search for tsunami victims enters final day


The Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the U.S. military and other rescue workers continued their three-day intensive search for the missing in tsunami-hit northeastern coastal areas on the final day Sunday. They recovered 35 bodies on Friday and 31 bodies on Saturday while as of 10 a.m. Sunday, 15,472 people had been reported as missing by relatives to police in six prefectures since the March 11 megaquake and tsunami ravaged areas centering on northeastern Japan. The death toll tallied by the National Police Agency came to 12,009 in 12 prefectures,

with 7,318 deaths in the hardest-hit Miyagi Prefecture, 3,518 in Iwate and 1,113 in Fukushima.

Rural sports complex turns into base camp for nuclear workers
At the edge of a no-man's land around the Fukushima No. 1 reactor complex lies a grassy athletic village that now serves as base camp for an army of workers battling the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. In regular rotation, groups are bused out to three-day shifts of punishing work at the water-logged, radiation-spewing complex. They stop only to gulp canned food and steal a nap on the floor, before they can return to J-Village, an oasis on the outskirts of an evacuated wasteland. (Japan Times)

Dog rescued at sea 3 weeks after Japan quake The Japanese coast guard on Friday rescued a dog floating in the debris off the coast of Kesennuma, northern Japan. It's unclear if the canine, which was scrambling on the roof of a house that had been washed away, had been at sea for the entire three weeks since the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The rescue did not come easy. After coast guard rescuers descended from a helicopter onto the house, the dog retreated under the roof and disappeared. INSIDE JAPAN Defiant Japanese boat captain rode out tsunami
Susumu Sugawara looks bemused and a little embarrassed at all the attention he's getting. The 64 year old has become a local hero on the Japanese island of Oshima. Smashed boats adorn the coastline of this once-idyllic tourist spot, but Sugawara's pride and joy, "Sunflower" is intact and working overtime transporting people and aid to and from the island. It can hold around 20 people at a time. When the tsunami came, everyone ran to the hills. But Sugawara ran to his boat and steered it into deeper waters. "I knew if I didn't save my boat, my island would be isolated and in trouble," he tells CNN. As he passed his other boats, used for fishing abalone, he said goodbye to them, apologizing that he could not save them all. Then the first wave came. Sugawara says he is used to seeing waves up to 5 meters high but this was four-times that size. (CNN)

A mother's search in post-tsunami Japan

ISHINOMAKI, Japan - Thousands of families are missing loved ones almost three weeks after a powerful earthquake and tsunami devastated towns and lives along Japan's northeast coast. One of them is the family of this AFP reporter.

This is the story of Takako Suzuki, 67, who is still searching for a sign of life from her daughter, this reporter's sister, amid the ruins of the small fishing port she has called home all her life. Every evening Suzuki slips under the quilt of her futon shortly after sunset around 7:00 pm because there is nothing to do in the pitch darkness. This district of Ishinomaki still has no electricity, tap water or gas. "I don't read newspapers, I don't listen to the radio. They are talking about horrible things," Suzuki, who has been a widow for years, says as she prepares to sleep on the second floor of her house. "Why do I have to know more when I've seen enough myself?" She wakes up as the sun rises. She goes downstairs to clear rubble left by the tsunami that smashed into the ground floor on March 11 and heaped tragedy on this quiet town in Miyagi prefecture. It was a day when in Miyagi a man felt his mother's hand slip out of his tight grasp, three children watched their mother being washed away, and an elderly couple vanished with their grandchild, their three bodies later found. (AFP)

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