More than 10,000 people are still missing in the Japanese disaster area after last week’s tsunami. Finding them is a long process for the relatives. Radio Netherlands Worldwide correspondent, Kjeld Duits, visited a stadium which is serving as a makeshift mortuary.
In Rifu-cho, near Sendai, around 500 bodies are lying in rows in a huge stadium. Usually this is a venue for sport competitions and concerts. But instead of cheering and standing ovations, there is an eerie silence. Only interrupted by helicopters landing and taking off from a nearby carpark.
Lists of death and sorrow
People leaving the stadium cry softly. A mother holding her ten-year-old son close to her stares blankly. There are lists of names with ages and towns inside. They are lists of death and sorrow, of dashed hopes. When relatives recognise a name it means an end to their long search of hospitals, evacuation centres, friends and family. But it is also bad news.
Many of the names on the lists are of people over 60. They were the only ones at home. The elderly didn’t stand a chance. The tsunami came too quickly and spread too far inland.
Number called
Around a hundred people are sitting around heaters in a waiting room. They are emotionally drained. There is no crying or laughing in the waiting room, people speak in hushed voices. Their expressions are neutral and there is a grim silence.
After people enter the room, they fill in a form. Then they are given a number. Once they are called, they go into another room where they are questioned by police. Then they go back to the waiting room. Behind the screens their information is compared to hundreds of photos and descriptions of victims. When someone is found, their number is called again.
No psychological help
Then they go to a room where they are shown photos of bodies similar to the description they gave. It is only when they recognise someone that they are allowed into the stadium to identify the body. The process takes hours, but no psychological help is given at all.
The only people to help those who have identified bodies are the staff of funeral parlours. But there is no funeral ceremony. Cremations even have to be put off until later.
“Lots of crematoria were damaged during the earthquake,” explains Toru Watanabe, managing director of a local funeral parlour. “There is no gas and hardly any oil,” he adds. “Usually, around 50 bodies can be cremated per day in Sendai. Now we can only manage 20.”
Unrecognisable
This is not the only problem: “There are not enough lorries to transport the bodies to the mortuaries,” explains police spokesperson Tsukasa Chiba. “We haven’t got enough people. Help has come from all over Japan, but the work is difficult and there is a huge number of bodies.” In addition, every body has to be examined by one doctor and two police officers. “Identification is especially difficult because many people are almost beyond recognition.”
Mr Watanabe further describes the difficulties with identification. “Many victims lost their clothes in the tsunami and are naked. There is almost nothing to recognise them by. A lot of them were at home, so they don’t have any identification on them.”
Flowers
As he speaks, a family arrives. Two of them are holding transparent plastic bags. The other holds a bunch of flowers. The whole family bows deeply. “We have found our mother,” says one of the women. “We are very grateful for your help.”
“The plastic bags are for the deceased’s personal belongings,” explains Mr Watanabe. Then he adds, “They found their father this morning, and their mother this afternoon.”
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