24 March,2011 07:13 AM IST | | Agencies
Japan has begun burying some earthquake victims in temporary mass graves because it does not have enough fuel for traditional cremations.
With supplies of fuel dwindling, officials have abandoned cremation in favour of quick, simple burials in a show of pragmatism over tradition.
Relatives cry over the coffin of their loved one who was killed in the tsunami-earthquake disaster during a mass burial at a cemetery in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, yesterday
Some are buried in bare plywood caskets and others in blue plastic bags, with no time to build proper coffins.
The bodies will be dug up and cremated later, officials assured the families.
In Higashimatsushima in Miyagi prefecture, soldiers lowered bare plywood coffins into the ground, saluting each casket, as families watched from a distance and helicopters occasionally clattered overhead.
The city government said up to 1,000 bodies could be laid to rest at the site. Burial is unusual in Japan, where
99.9 per cent of bodies are cremated.
Cremation requires
50 litres of kerosene for a single corpse, and there is not enough available at present.
Many areas had banned burials because of public health concerns, but now mass graves will be created across the north-east of Japan.
Some relatives put flowers on the graves. Most remained stoic, folding hands in prayer. Two young girls wept inconsolably, hugged tightly by their father.
"I hope their spirits will rest in peace here at this temporary place," said Katsuko Oguni.
