Video: Japanese Navy Recovers Body
A video from Japan’s NTV news about the Maritime Self-Defense Forces’ efforts to find and recover the remains of people killed by the March 11th tsunami:
When a person is spotted floating in the sea, a small boat is dispatched. The crew confirms that the person is dead and recovers the body. A helicopter then takes the body to a morgue. (To protect the privacy of the victim and his/her family, the footage is blurred.)
The Wall Street Journal notes that only a few hundred bodies have been recovered at sea, while about 15,000 people are still missing. Many survivors will have to cope with the fact that the bodies of family and friends will never be recovered:
In the weeks to come in Japan, an article of clothing or a photo will take the place of a missing body at the burial ceremony.
“If you don’t have the body, than what do you do,” says John Nelson, who lived in Japan and is now chairman of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. “There has to be some representation of the person. But the main thing is that the ritual needs to take place.”
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
