Woes Could Linger for Japan's Jobless 

 

Japan—Long lines have formed at the town hall of this coastal community as residents look for government aid and access to working phones while relief workers queue up for their orders. This week, a new line formed: people looking for jobs.

When an earthquake and tsunami rocked this region of Japan this month, it not only killed more than 11,000 and left more than 16,200 missing; it also left potentially hundreds of thousands of people jobless or unable to reach those workplaces that have even reopened.
Toshio Ota, 56 years old, has driven taxis for 28 years. His taxi company's office was near the airport in the city of Sendai, large parts of which were destroyed by the March 11 waves. He has no way to make the one-hour drive to check on the office, because he doesn't have gasoline for the trip, and the phone in the office isn't ringing. He is assuming the worst.
So on Tuesday, he decided to stand in line at his local town hall in Yamamoto, a suburb south of Sendai, to ask for government help with unemployment insurance as well as finding a new job.
"There is no way I still have a job," he said as he waited with 50 others for consultations with officials from the state's labor bureau. "In 28 years, I've never had to ask for government help. I don't even know how to apply."
When the twin disasters hit, Japan's job market was gaining momentum. In February, unemployment had slipped to a two-year low of 4.6% and was expected to slide further.
While the job market was weaker in many small towns, Yamamoto was seeing some improvement as more of its citizens commuted to Sendai, the nearest big city and a relative bright spot in the regional economy. But a more sustainable rebound has been derailed now, economists say, and the sheer scale of the joblessness could cause problems for years to come.
Most of the 800,000 people who work in the three worst-affected prefectures have had their livelihoods affected, the United Nations said Wednesday, citing Japanese government reports. So far, about 23,000 people have gone to local employment offices to inquire about job opportunities and unemployment benefits, it said.
The government is encouraging many of the displaced workers to visit existing labor offices in the region, known by their cheery name—"Hello Work"—even though there are few jobs available. If anything, employers are looking for as much relief as the formerly employed: The Sendai Hello Work office has been inundated with hundreds of calls from employers wondering what they are required to do for their employees if their businesses can no longer function"The number of calls we get from employers looking to hire at this point is basically zero," said Hiroyuki Uchikawa, a manager at the Sendai office. People in the construction industry will soon be in demand, he predicted, but that won't be enough to put everyone back to work.
As for job applicants, the Hello Work office in downtown Sendai was expecting thousands of them by now, but few have arrived. Many people are still struggling to survive, and many can't get out of their small towns, now that the region's public-transport system is in shambles.
To make things easier for unemployed workers, the labor bureau decided to set up temporary satellite offices in Yamamoto and other towns this week. Officials also are taking out newspaper ads to tell people to come in.
It remains unclear how far officials will be able to go to help them, though. On Tuesday, the government said it would ease rules for unemployment insurance so that people who are only temporarily displaced, or haven't formally been laid off, can also apply. But that won't necessarily solve longer-term challenges if some companies simply choose to shut down. Another possibility is to expand cash handouts to victims, though the cost could strain Japan's resources at a time when the country is already deeply in debt.
Although lawmakers on Tuesday passed a record ¥92.412 trillion ($1.121 trillion) national budget bill for the fiscal year starting in April, questions over funding remained as opposition lawmakers fight a bond-issuance bill.
Getting people back to work is a key step in any disaster recovery. After the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., international aid organizations sponsored work programs to pay victims some money as they helped clean up their own communities. But such programs may be difficult and costly to implement in Japan, where wages are unusually high by international standards.
"For people's psychological needs, getting back to work is important," said Diane Johnson, global economics development coordinator for Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based aid group that has implemented work programs in the past and is in Japan this week. "Going to work and having work colleagues is part of everyday life. Being cut off from this is disturbing."
Mercy Corps has already decided against a temporary employment program in Japan. Wages and the aversion to doing difficult work in the dirt are too high here. Meanwhile, the massive scale of the cleanup means much of the work can only be done with heavy vehicles like backhoes and trucks.

Instead, Mercy Corps is trying to partner with local non-government organizations and banks to make sure small and medium size companies, which account for most jobs in small towns, are able to get loans they need to rebuild on their own.
The difficulties can be seen in Kesennuma, a fishing community in northeast Japan. Many big fishing boats there avoided the waves because they weren't in port, but now they have no ice to store their fish because there is no electricity on land, said Ms. Johnson, who spent part of this week interviewing people there. Many fish-processing companies were destroyed, as well, but some with enough capital are up and running by using big power generators.
Oyster farmers in the area face an even tougher future, because it can take as long as seven years to restore oyster beds damaged in the disaster.
Yamamoto Town, for its part, will have a hard time restoring its industries, which included strawberry farms and tourism. An 800-year-old temple has been severely damaged, beaches are littered with rubble, and all that is left of the local strawberry patches are a few "pick your own strawberry" signs and thousands of flattened metal poles from the greenhouses.
Isamu Sasaki, who owns a painting company, showed up at the town hall on Tuesday to ask what to do about his staff. There will eventually be lots of work painting homes and companies, the 65-year-old assumes, but it may take months.
In the meantime, his warehouse, cars and equipment are damaged and his customers cancelled all orders. He doesn't think he can afford to keep his five employees.
"They asked that I put my employees on temporary leave," with partial pay, he said as he left the town hall. "Then they gave me all these papers to fill out," he said waving a half-inch stack of forms. "This is tough."

Read more »

Obama Authorizes Covert Operations in Libya, as U.S. Considers Aiding Rebels, Sources Say

Obama Authorizes Covert Operations in Libya, as U.S. Considers Aiding Rebels, Sources Say

President Obama has signed a secret presidential finding authorizing covert operations in Libya, a U.S. official told Fox News, although the administration says it still hasn't decided whether to arm rebel forces there.

The presidential findings establish a framework of legal authorities for covert action. They can authorize specific actions, such as arming the rebels, or establish authorities under which future actions might be taken after permissions are given to undertake them.

In other words, covert actions won't start until the president signs off again. 

The Pentagon has begun drafting plans for arming the rebels if needed, sources told Fox News, but officials caution that no decision has been made because not enough is known yet about the rebels.

It will take “a little more passage of time and more interaction” with the Libyan rebels before the U.S. can make a well informed decision as to whether to arm the Libyan rebels, a senior Obama administration official told Fox News, but the official also cautioned that senior policymakers are not, at present, convinced that doing so “will bring about the desired outcome.”

The question of whether to arm the rebels has risen to the forefront of the debate over U.S. intervention in the war-torn country, as Obama has come out strongly against sending American ground troops to help oust Libya leader Muammar al-Qaddafi while also hesitating to support efforts behind the scenes to negotiate Qaddafi's exit.

More than a week after the start of coalition airstrikes on Qaddafi military sites in support of U.N.-authorized no-fly zone, the U.S. and its allies are presently in the position of seeing whether rebels can seize the moment and turn the tide against Qaddafi forces. U.S. military leaders have expressed skepticism that the rebels will prevail on their own.

Obama and his national security team are still hoping that events on the ground – such as the death or resignation of Col. Qaddafi – might spare them from having to make a decision about arming the rebels, the senior administration official told Fox News.

A senior military official told Fox News that the Pentagon is planning how and with what weapons it might arm Libyan rebel forces, but questions of legality have prevented the administration from springing the plan into action.

Although the legal framework exists within the U.N. resolution to arm rebels -- as has been pointed out repeatedly by members of the Obama administration this week -- the question is whether or not this rebel group falls into that legal framework.

"It's a question of the group's legitimacy," the military official said.

As NATO Supreme Allied Commander Adm. Stavridis pointed out Tuesday on Capitol Hill, intelligence has shown "flickers" of possible Al Qaeda involvement among these rebel groups, and this senior military official reinforced that point Wednesday, telling Fox News that "there is certainly an element there."

If the U.S. were to arm rebels the other big question is how to do it without putting troops on the ground. The simple answer the Pentagon is considering: Make the allies do it.

To fight Qaddafi's armored vehicles, the rebels need RPGs, the military source told Fox News. They also need ammunition, fuel and communications capabilities.

"The presumption is that if you give them weapons, you would need someone to train them," the official said, and because of the administration's promise not to put U.S. boots on the ground, that mission would likely fall to the special operations forces of partner countries, like the British or the French.

The senior administration official who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity also raised concerns about the "legal framework" for arming the reels.

“This is very much in line with what we have been saying. We are examining whether this group is the kind of entity we could provide arms to," the official said. "You could call that a legal question or a political one. But obviously if you give weapons to the wrong groups, it works counter to our interests.”

Asked about the caliber of U.S. intelligence on the Libyan rebels, the administration official acknowledged: “We are limited in what we have, especially given the outbreak of hostilities. We don’t have people on the ground. And intelligence is only so good. I’m not saying we don’t have the capability of developing a better read on these people – we do, and we are – but policy makers are very keen to get a clearer picture as soon as possible.”

The official noted that formal U.S. relations with Libya only date back about eighteen months, and that even since then, the country has remained “a fairly murky place.” Consequently, the official confirmed that the U.S. is relying more heavily than it ordinarily would on the intelligence provided by allied nations that have longer-standing ties in Tripoli.

Read more »

Obama Defends Military Mission in Libya, Says U.S. Acted to 'Prevent a Massacre

Obama Defends Military Mission in Libya, Says U.S. Acted to 'Prevent a Massacre

President Obama, defending his decision to send U.S. forces to Libya while outlining in unprecedented detail his foreign policy philosophy, said Monday that the United States acted to "prevent a massacre" and that to do otherwise would have been "a betrayal of who we are." 

The president, in a nationally televised address, stressed that he would not commit the U.S. military to toppling Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime, warning that such a goal of regime change would fracture the coalition and require ground forces. He described that mission, rather, as one for the Libyan people, claiming the United States and its allies have "stopped Qaddafi's deadly advance" and will "keep the pressure" on his regime as the rebels continue fighting. 

"They will be able to determine their own destiny, and that is how it should be," Obama said. 

The president's speech, delivered nine days after he authorized military action in support of a U.N.-approved no-fly zone, was meant to answer mounting questions about the direction and purpose of the mission. The president once again described U.S. involvement as "limited" and said NATO would assume full control of the operation Wednesday -- though the president did not provide details about the conditions under which U.S. forces could leave the region. That omission prompted several complaints from lawmakers Monday night. 

But Obama also used the occasion to outline what could be called the Obama doctrine. Under that world view, the United States may intervene abroad to prevent humanitarian crises, provided international partners are involved. 

"There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and our values are," Obama said. "In such cases, we should not be afraid to act -- but the burden of action should not be America's alone." 

The president argued that the crisis in Libya represented such a scenario. Faced with the possibility of massive bloodshed in Libya at the hands of Qaddafi -- whom he described as a "tyrant" and blamed for the deaths of Americans in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing -- Obama said U.S. interests and values were at stake, and the country had "a responsibility to act." He said "countless lives have been saved" as a result, and suggested that a massacre in Libya could have interrupted the momentum toward political reform elsewhere in the region. 

"While I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America," Obama said. 

The president, unlike his predecessors, chose to deliver an address about U.S. military action not from the Oval Office, but before a military audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He also spoke more than a week after U.S. forces started launching missiles into Libya -- whereas his predecessors typically addressed the public from the very start of military involvement overseas. 

That delay compounded the criticism the president has faced from Congress. Some lawmakers say he should have first sought permission on Capitol Hill before committing U.S. forces; others complain that he has not been clear about whether the United States would be willing to end the military mission with Qaddafi still in power. 

Those complaints did not abate following the speech. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, complaining that the speech came "nine days late," said afterward that the president "failed to explain why he unilaterally took our nation to war without bothering to make the case to the U.S. Congress." He also accused the president of "splitting the difference" by continuing to call for Qaddafi's removal without explaining what it would take to remove him. 

"Nine days into this military intervention, Americans still have no answer to the fundamental question -- what does success in Libya look like?" said Mike Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. 

Obama, though, described as a "false choice" the debate in Washington between those who believe the United States should not have intervened and those calling for an all-out campaign for regime change. 

"To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq," Obama said of the latter argument. "That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya." 

He said the U.S. role going forward would consist of intelligence operations, search-and-rescue missions, logistical support and help jamming Qaddafi's communications. 

Other lawmakers continued to applaud the president for his handling of the Libyan crisis. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the military intervened to "stave off a humanitarian crisis." 

The president spoke Monday as rebel forces continued to clash with those loyal to Qaddafi's regime. The protection from western allies has undoubtedly helped the rebels recover lost ground, but the outcome was still unclear. Rebels were advancing toward Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Monday, but a top U.S. army official said the opposition is not organized and "not a very robust organization." 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said candidly Sunday that nobody knows how long the U.S. military could be involved in the conflict. 

Before his speech, Obama spoke Monday by videoconference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron about the transition to NATO command.

Read more »

Israel Deploys Rocket Defense System Against Gaza

Israel Deploys Rocket Defense System Against Gaza

Israel deployed a cutting-edge rocket defense system on Sunday, rolling out the latest tool in its arsenal to stop a recent spike in attacks from the neighboring Gaza Strip.

Israel hopes the homegrown Iron Dome system will provide increased security to its citizens, but officials warned that it can't do the job alone. The system went into operation shortly after an Israeli aircraft struck a group of militants in Gaza, killing two. Israeli said they were about to fire a rocket.

The Iron Dome system has raised hopes that Israel has finally found a solution to the years of rocket fire from Gaza. The primitive rockets have evaded Israel's high-tech weaponry, in part because their short flight path, just a few seconds, makes them hard to track.

The government approved Iron Dome in 2007. Its developers have compared the effort to a high-tech start-up, working around the clock in small teams to perfect its weapons, radar and software systems. The developer, local defense contractor Rafael, declared the system ready for use last year.

Iron Dome uses sophisticated cameras and radar to track incoming rockets, determine where they will land, and intercept and destroy them far from their targets. If the system determines the rocket is headed to an open area where casualties are unlikely, it can allow the weapon to explode on the ground. 

Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of Israel's air defense corps, said Iron Dome has passed a series of tests and has now reached its "evaluation phase" in the field. It is expected to be fully operational in a matter of months.

He added that it was only supposed to be deployed later in the year, but it was put into operation earlier because of the recent rocket attacks from Gaza.

"Obviously, after what we saw in the last few weeks, we accelerated the phases," he said, standing before the brown, box-like battery on the outskirts of Beersheba, southern Israel's largest city with a population of nearly 200,000.

After two years of relative calm, tensions along the Israel-Gaza border have heated up in recent weeks with Gaza militants firing deeper and more frequently into Israel, and the military striking back hard. Beersheba, more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Gaza, has been struck several times.

Although Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group have both said they have no interest in escalating the situation, the renewed hostilities have fed concerns of another large-scale Israeli military operation.

In December 2008, Israel invaded Gaza in response to years of rocket and mortar barrages on its southern communities, killing 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, and causing widespread destruction. Thirteen Israelis also died.

Israel believes that Hamas, which suffered heavy losses in the fighting, has recovered from the fighting and restocked its arsenal with more powerful weapons.

Gaza militants, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas, said over the weekend that they would halt their fire if Israel did.

But early Sunday, Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad in the Gaza Strip, killing two militants from Islamic Jihad, a smaller rival of Hamas. It was not clear whether Islamic Jihad was reneging on its commitment to the cease-fire, or whether the airstrike hit a rogue group of militants.

Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu urged all militant factions to halt their fire as agreed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had "no interest" in escalating things. "But we won't hesitate to employ the might of the military against those who would attack our citizens," Netanyahu told his Cabinet.

Netanyahu also gave a sober assessment of Iron Dome, saying he "didn't want to create the illusion" that the system would offer Israel 100 percent protection from rocket attacks.

"The Iron Dome system is still in an experimental stage, and at any rate, we cannot deploy batteries that can protect every house, every school, every (military) base and every facility," he said.

A second anti-missile battery will be deployed in another large southern city, Ashdod, the military said, without specifying a date.

Officials refused to say how many batteries would be deployed altogether, what their range was, or how much the system would cost. Analysts have estimated the cost of shooting down a rocket could be tens of thousands of dollars, compared to just a few hundred dollars to produce the rocket.

"The real test is not the price of knocking down the rocket, but how much damage the rocket would cause, and the price in human life, if it hits," said Gavish, the air force officer.

Uzi Rubin, an Israeli missile defense expert, said the system is bound to suffer initial malfunctions as operators learn how to use it.

"Unfortunately, Israel is writing the book," Rubin said. "That includes doing some things right and sometimes making.

 

Read more »

Magnitude-6.5 Quake Off Japan; Small Tsunami Alert

Magnitude-6.5 Quake Off Japan; Small Tsunami Alert

A magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook eastern Japan off the quake-ravaged coast on Monday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, prompting Japan to issue a tsunami alert.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but the Japan Meteorological Agency announced that a tsunami of up to 1.6 feet (a half meter) may wash into Miyagi Prefecture.

The alert was prompted by a quake that the U.S. Geological Survey measured at 7:23 a.m. Monday Japan time (2223 GMT Sunday) near the east coast of Honshu.

The USGS said the quake was 3.7 miles deep.

A magnitude-9 quake off Japan's northeast coast on March 11 triggered a tsunami that barreled onshore, triggering a humanitarian disaster that is thought to have killed about 18,000 people

 

Read more »

NATO to assume command of Libya air operations

NATO to assume command of Libya air operations

NATO will assume command of all aerial operations — including ground attacks — in Libya from the U.S.-led force that has been conducting air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces, officials said Sunday.

The North Atlantic Council — the alliance's top body — approved a plan to expand the previously agreed mission to enforce the U.N. arms embargo and no-fly zone by agreeing to protect civilians from attack.

"NATO Allies have decided to take on the whole military operation in Libya under the U.N. Security Council resolution," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

"NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution. Nothing more, nothing less," he said.

After eight days of strikes on Libyan targets, Washington is eager to quickly hand off responsibility for the air offensive to the alliance.

A diplomat who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the transfer of authority from the U.S.-led force may take several days. He said the rules of engagement for the NATO force would be very similar to those of the international air armada.

The U.N. authorized the operation after Gadhafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power

The air strikes have already tipped the balance away from Gadhafi's regular military to the lightly armed rebels, although the two sides remain at stalemate in key cities.

NATO expects to start enforcing the U.N.-authorized no-fly zone on Sunday or Monday, as well as coordinating naval patrols in the Mediterranean to enforce the arms embargo.

A Canadian three-star general, Charles Bouchard, will be in charge of both operations. He will report to an American admiral, Samuel Locklear, commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples.

Naples is one of NATO's two operational headquarters. The other, Brunssum in the Netherlands, is responsible for the war in Afghanistan.

NATO has significant experience in such operations. Its warplanes successfully enforced a no-fly zone over Bosnia in the early 1990s and bombed Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1999 in an effort to end crackdowns on ethnic Albanian civilians.

Read more »

Cherry blossoms a poignant reminder of Japan's fragility

'Humans, like the flowers, are transient,' says one quake survivor'

TOKYO — The cherry trees will soon blossom in Japan.

For the Japanese, it will be a particularly poignant sight. Even in normal times, the flowers are a cause for rejoicing tinged with sadness, because they fall at the moment of their greatest beauty. They are the embodiment of a notion that is central to Japanese culture — "hakanasa," a hard-to-translate word that conveys the fragility, or evanescence, of life.
For Japan, this sense of transience is also a source of strength.
In this time of national grieving, the cherry blossoms will bring home the awareness of hakanasa with a strange kind of force — one that doesn't strike but sinks into the soul like heat from a hot spring or fire from a sake bottle, bringing sorrow and solace in equal measure. The fragility of technologically-advanced Japan was exposed in the most terrifying way in the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast, leaving more than 10,000 people dead, some 17,500 missing and about a half-million homeless, and spawning a nuclear disaster.
Hiroyuki Yoneta, a monger at Tokyo's bustling Tsukiji fish market, reflected on life's frailty as he took a break from loading crab and shrimp onto his rickety stall a couple hours before his 4 a.m. opening time.
"Thinking about how these people living normal lives suddenly disappeared, you can't escape the feeling that humans, like the flowers, are transient things," Yoneta said.
But consider this Japanese paradox: the delicate cherry blossom was also the symbol of the samurai, the epitome of Japanese valor.

The warrior class liked the flowers because they didn't cling to life, but rather showed up for the briefest spell, and fell at the peak of their splendor. In this way, they embodied the spirit of "bushido" — the way of the warrior that combines stoicism, bravery, and self-sacrifice.

1. Japan earthquake
   1. 
      Japan criticizes nuke plant operator
   2. Nuke plant worker recalls narrow escape
   3. Dangerous breach feared at Japan nuke site
   4. 
      Interactive
      PhotoBlog: Waves hit Japan nuke plant
   5. Crime gangs among first with quake aid
   6. 
      In Japan, radiation level in sea water raises fears
   7. 
      Time-lapse of  aftershocks
   8. 
      Images of chaos, destruction

These days, people invoke bushido less often than the common man's down-to-earth version — "gaman." It means gritting your teeth and just getting on with life. When people refer to Japan's salarymen as modern-day samurai, it's taken not so much in a swashbuckling sense but for the way these men in suits endure crushing, monotonous toil, and display unwavering loyalty to a common cause.
Moving on and starting over
And amid death, people of all stripes here are plowing ahead with life, in an orderly and cooperative way. Many are already starting to return to the sites of their devastated homes, and thinking cool-headedly about how to start over amid Japan's biggest catastrophe since World War II.
Scenes of gaman abound: the homeless family sitting around a makeshift fire as snow falls at night, their stoic faces lit up by orange flames. The old man walking his bicycle through an ankle-high lake of mud, his son's wedding picture in the basket. Drivers waiting patiently in line for hours for scarce gasoline in quake-ravaged areas.

Shuji Kajiyama  /  AP

Qa wedding photo lies in the rubble in the devastated area in Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture.

And so do stories of self-sacrifice.
Kennichi Takeuchi, 81, and his wife Yukiko, 78, have been living in their tiny black Mitsubishi car since the quake, amid snow and a biting wind — even though they're just outside a community center packed with refugees.
Yukiko has a bad leg and can't sleep on the hard wood floor inside. Kennichi, who's been married to Yukiko for 56 years, isn't about to seek the comfort of the center.
"We pass the time here in the car," said Yukiko, her dog Meg sitting on her lap. "It's not so bad."

1. Japan earthquake
   1. 
      Japan criticizes nuke plant operator
   2. Nuke plant worker recalls narrow escape
   3. Dangerous breach feared at Japan nuke site
   4. 
      Interactive
      PhotoBlog: Waves hit Japan nuke plant
   5. Crime gangs among first with quake aid
   6. 
      In Japan, radiation level in sea water raises fears
   7. 
   8. 
      The notions of hakanasa and gaman may also have roots in Japan's traditional awareness of humankind's powerlessness in the face of almighty nature. It's a lesson Japan may have started to forget as it put nuclear reactors on shores near faultlines, reclaimed land from Tokyo Bay to build airport extensions, and sent ever-higher buildings into the sky.

But this relationship with nature — a paradox of being at one with it while still in constant antagonism — remains deeply embedded in the Japanese mind.
Part of it has to do with the fact that Japan is so prone to natural disasters: Killer quakes and tsunamis have struck time and again in Japanese history. And time and again, the nation has rebuilt.
Anyone who has visited the ancient capital of Kyoto will know that Japan was for most of its history a culture of wooden buildings rather than brick-and-mortar. This tradition of wood brings the Japanese closer to nature — and, because wooden homes can be destroyed so easily, also makes them acutely aware of nature's force.

"The transience (hakanasa) of human life and the transience of buildings are both caught in mutability's immeasurable vortex of sadness," the novelist Keiichiro Hirano wrote in an essay titled "On Mutability."

This year, that sadness will be driven home by the fact so many thousands will never see another "hanami" season — as cherry blossom viewing is known here.
And there may be comfort because amid horror, there are fleeting scenes of beauty: the hug of reunited family members. The smile of a relief worker handing out a blanket. And soon — even amid the rubble — clouds of petals drifting to the ground where homes once stood and laughter once rang out.
'Cherry blossoms and a change of heart'
Haruhiko Fukuda, a squat man with a shaved head and gentle eyes who runs a century-old dumpling shop a few steps from fishmonger Yoneta's stall, sees hope.
"After the cold (season) ... you have the cherry blossoms and a change of heart," Fukuda said. "I hope that will help spur our rebuilding. Step by step, fixing something that's broken is a huge task, and as a first step we need some inspirations to rebuild."
In the days to come the flowers will bloom in the south, appear soon afterward in Tokyo, and drift toward the ravaged north in April — poet T.S. Eliot's "cruelest month" — in a wave of whitish-pink that may reach its peak just as this nation's people emerge from collective shell-shock and a deeper pain, if that's possible, sinks in.
This story was written on the Vernal Equinox, a tradition-steeped public holiday in Japan that signals spring — and cherry blossom season — are around the corner. It's also a day for paying respect at the graves of loved ones — a reminder that for thousands in northeastern Japan, there will likely never be a tombstone at which to pray.
Spring everywhere carries the promise of renewal, yet in Japan the cherry blossoms are also a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. The acceptance of this paradox may bring out a particularly Japanese strength -- a stoicism that will be called upon repeatedly as the nation confronts its tragedy.

Read more »

A burial in the rain for Japan tsunami victims

KESENNUMA, Japan - Ten flimsy wooden coffins were laid on two sturdy rails at a hastily prepared cemetery of mostly mud as Keseunnuma began burying its dead from the tsunami that ripped apart the Japanese coastal city.
Desperate municipalities such as Kesennuma have been digging mass graves, unthinkable in a nation where the deceased are almost always cremated and their ashes placed in stone family tombs near Buddhist temples. Local regulations often prohibit burial of bodies.
The number of dead in Kesennuma was 551 as of Saturday, far too many for local crematoriums that can typically manage about 10 bodies a day but are now facing shortages of kerosene.
Another 1,448 in the city of about 74,000 are missing from the tsunami two weeks ago that has left more than 27,500 people dead or missing across Japan.
"This disaster has created a tsunami of tears," said Shuko Kakayama, master of the Jifukuji Buddhist temple, which lost 300 members to the tsunami that also heavily damaged temple grounds.
Kakayama, who presided over the funeral of one temple member and prayed for all souls laid to rest, said there was a time when Japan permitted burials.
But the government has for decades sought cremations due to a lack of cemetery space in the densely populated country.
"If we are returning to the earth, then we are returning to nature," Kakayama said.
More than 100 mourners with rubber boots for the mud, umbrellas for the rain and snow and heavy coats for the biting cold were asked by a city official to form lines in front of the casket of their family members.
"Please feel free to place whatever you want in the casket," the official said in a funeral devoid of any formal ceremony.
Mourners approached caskets. Kakayama chanted and rang a small bell that gently punctuated the sobbing while a woman sang a song of loss, kneeling at the grave of her mother.
Mourners took lids off the coffins, placing inside food, flowers, pictures, a fresh set of clothes and other keepsakes for their departed loved ones to take with them.
There was little time to linger. The burial for the next 10 people was about to start in a few minutes in similar funerals expected to run for weeks at the wooded hilltop a few kilometres away from where the tsunami tore through the city.
Relatives burned incense, put improvised altars on the coffins and prayed.
They were told to remember the number of the wood marker placed behind the coffin because that would serve as the temporary tombstone.
Police have been storing DNA samples from unidentified bodies, which will also be buried, in case that can help identification at some later stage.
"You can visit the graves from tomorrow," the official said. "Be careful, there will be a lot of heavy machinery here."
Mourners filed out while a family consoled each other at a small tent that offered protection from the rain.
"All we can do is fight through this," one said to a sobbing relative.
As workers came to nail the coffins shut, the next batch of 10 bodies arrived.

Read more »

Death toll tops 10,000 but nuke crisis hampers search

                   Death toll tops 10,000 but nuke crisis hampers search 

 The official death toll from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami topped 10,000 on Friday, while around 240,000 people continue to seek shelter in some 1,900 evacuation centers. According to the National Police Agency, more than 27,000 people had been confirmed dead or missing as of noon Friday, comprising 10,035 deaths and 17,443 unaccounted for.

The full extent of loss of life is still unclear, as search efforts in Fukushima Prefecture have been hampered by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which is leaking radiation. Police in Miyagi Prefecture meanwhile believe the sea will yield more bodies.
Damage to buildings and roads is estimated at between ¥16 trillion and ¥25 trillion. Miyagi police have posted information on their website about more than 2,000 recovered bodies, including details of clothing, in hopes of identifying them.
With the number of bodies collected far exceeding the authorities' capacity to cremate them all, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures are forgoing tradition and have started burials. In Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, nearly 100 bodies have already been buried.
In Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, autopsies have been completed on some 9,890 bodies, of which 6,890 have been identified and 6,320 returned to their families.
While highways and ports in the disaster-hit areas have reopened, part of the bullet train service on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line remains suspended with no clear time frame for resumption. In addition, 55 sewage plants remain disabled.
Meanwhile, aftershocks have continued to jolt survivors of the disaster, and the Meteorological Agency is forecasting a 20 percent chance of an aftershock with a magnitude of more than 7.0 striking through Sunday.
In a fresh move to assist survivors, the Hiroshima prefectural board of education informed its Miyagi counterpart that it can accept around 150 elementary school children and 10 teachers for one year at two school buildings that are not in use in the city of Etajima.
As it will be difficult to host their families as well, the children would be put up at a nearby public accommodation facility.
Akitakata, another city in Hiroshima, is also preparing to accept around 80 elementary school students so they can continue their studies, the board of education said.

The nuclear crisis, meanwhile, led authorities to issue temporary warnings in Tokyo, as well as cities in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba, Saitama and Tochigi prefectures on Thursday calling on people not to give tap water to infants due to contamination from radioactive iodine.
Tokyo has lifted its warning.

Read more »

Major record labels join for Japan relief album

The world's four leading record labels have lent hit tracks to an album released on Friday to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross Society following this month's earthquake and tsunami. What started off as an initiative by Universal Music, the world's biggest record company, has turned into an industry-wide collaboration. The result is the 38-track "Songs for Japan." Universal said it was handling the servicing of the digital album, while Sony Music would produce a physical version provisionally set to hit stores on April 4. Featured on the album, available on the iTunes Store for $9.99, are artists including John Lennon ("Imagine"), U2 ("Walk On"), Bob Dylan ("Shelter From the Storm"), Lady Gaga ("Born This Way") and Bruce Springsteen ("Human Touch")

Read more »

Engineers toil to pump out Japan plant

07:30 JST March 27: Japanese engineers struggled on Sunday to pump radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power station after radiation levels soared in seawater near the plant more than two weeks after it was battered by a huge earthquake and a tsunami.
Tests on Friday showed iodine 131 levels in seawater 30 km (19 miles) from the coastal nuclear complex had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal but it was not considered a threat to marine life or food safety, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
"Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior agency official.
Despite that reassurance, the disclosure is likely to heighten international concern over Japanese seafood exports. Several countries have already banned milk and produce from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, while others have been monitoring Japanese seafood

Read more »

Suspect in Shooting Death of Georgia Cop Releases 4 of 8 Hostages

Suspect in Shooting Death of Georgia Cop Releases 4 of 8 Hostages

March 25, 2011

ATHENS, Ga. -- The man suspected in the shooting death of a Georgia police officer released four of the eight hostages who authorities said he was holding at an Athens apartment Friday evening, and negotiators were working toward a peaceful surrender.

Athens Police Capt. Clarence Holeman said 33-year-old Jamie Hood released the hostages around 9 p.m. Friday night. The police captain said Hood knew the hostages, who police said were not harmed, but added that the relationship is uncertain.

"l like to think it's getting closer if we have hostages being released," Holeman said when asked whether the crisis could soon be defused. "Let's hope so."

Police had been searching for Hood since Tuesday, when Athens Clarke-County policeman Elmer "Buddy" Christian was shot and killed while police say he attempted to apprehend Hood. Another officer, Tony Howard, was shot in the face and upper body, and is recovering from his wounds.

A law enforcement official who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the case told The Associated Press earlier Friday that Hood contacted authorities and requested to speak with his mother and his attorney. The official said Hood was "agitated" and wary of negotiating with police.

The four-day manhunt led authorities to a range of locations around Athens-Clarke County as they received a flurry of tips about where he might be hiding. Officers descended on an area in east Athens, surrounding an apartment complex and barricading nearby roads.

"It is our objective to have the safe release of persons who are with him and then to have the safe surrender of Mr. Hood," said Vernon Keenan, the head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. "This is a very tense situation but we have a commitment to see the safe release of these people."

The search began after authorities stopped Howard while he was in an SUV in West Athens around 1 p.m. Tuesday, seeking to question him in connection with a carjacking and kidnapping.

The vehicle's driver was arrested, but police say Hood got out of the vehicle and shot and wounded Howard, striking him in the face and the upper body. He then fatally shot Christian while he was still sitting in his patrol car, authorities said.

Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin called the shooting a police ambush. Lumpkin said this week he hoped a $50,000 reward would inspire someone to come forward, calling Hood a "career criminal" who has associates in the city's murky criminal world.

Police are expecting thousands of people to attend Sunday's funeral for Christian, who was an 8-year veteran of the Athens police department. Christian, 34, was married with two young children.

Friday evening, a crowd of residents and onlookers gathered at a nearby church and gas station to monitor the hostage situation. Several of Hood's relatives waited for updates and prayed it would end without bloodshed.

Jennifer Hood, the suspect's sister, said her brother called police Friday and told them he wanted to turn himself in.

"He's afraid to die," she said. "I would be, too."

Read more »

Conditions at Japan Nuke Plant Take Turn for the Worse, Sparking New Fears of Meltdown

Conditions at Japan Nuke Plant Take Turn for the Worse, Sparking New Fears of Meltdown

March 25, 2011

Despite some signs of hope in the past week at Japan's troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, conditions have taken an increasingly alarming turn, with a possible breach at one of the reactors and highly radioactive water found leaking from that and two other reactors.

A nuclear crisis that not long ago was described as serious but stable has now raised concerns of a greater meltdown, with the danger underscored Friday with two plant employees hospitalized after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than normal.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. told Kyodo News that it has begun injecting freshwater into the Unit 1 and 3 reactors at the plant, despite radioactive water leaking from Unit 1, 2 and 3.

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences says that the two employees have likely suffered "internal exposure" in which radioactive substances have entered their bodies, according to Kyodo News.

Trouble at the nuclear plant began shortly after the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out power at the plant, impairing its cooling mechanisms.

March 25: Workers, who stepped into radiation-contaminated water during Thursday's operation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, are shielded with tarps before receiving decontamination treatment at a hospital in Fukushima, northeastern Japan.

The possible breach in Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that's lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than would further melt the core.

A Japanese government official told residents within 19 miles of the crippled plant to evacuate Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference that the government asked leaders of affected municipalities to encourage people to leave the affected areas, according to Kyodo News.

A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation.

"The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant," Kan said. "We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."

The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.

Kan apologized to farmers and business owners for the toll the radiation has had on their livelihoods: Several countries have halted some food imports from areas near the plant after milk and produce were found to contain elevated levels of radiation.

He also thanked utility workers, firefighters and military personnel for "risking their lives" to cool the overheated facility.

The alarm Friday comes two weeks to the day since the magnitude-9 quake triggered a tsunami that enveloped cities along the northeastern coast and knocked out the Fukushima reactor's cooling systems.

Police said the official death toll jumped past 10,000 on Friday. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.

The nuclear crisis has compounded the challenges faced by a nation already saddled with a humanitarian disaster. Much of the frigid northeast remains a scene of despair and devastation, with Japan struggling to feed and house hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors, clear away debris and bury the dead.

A breach could mean a leak has been seeping for days, likely since the hydrogen explosion at Unit 3 on March 14. It's not clear if any of the contaminated water has run into the ground. Radiation readings for the air were not yet available for Friday, but detections in recent days have shown no significant spike.

But elevated levels of radiation have already turned up in raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips. Tap water in several areas of Japan -- including Tokyo -- also showed radiation levels considered unsafe for infants, who are particularly vulnerable to cancer-causing radioactive iodine, officials said.

The scare caused a run on bottled water in the capital, and Tokyo municipal officials are distributing it to families with babies.

Previous radioactive emissions have come from intentional efforts to vent small amounts of steam through valves to prevent the core from bursting. However, releases from a breach could allow uncontrolled quantities of radioactive contaminants to escape into the surrounding ground or air.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano said "safety measures may not be adequate" and warned that may contribute to rising anxiety among people about how the disaster is being managed.

"We have to make sure that safety is secured for the people working in that area. We truly believe that is incumbent upon us," the chief Cabinet secretary told reporters.

NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said later that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. was issued a "very strong warning" for safety violations and that a thorough review would be conducted once the situation stabilizes.

Another strong aftershock struck off Japan's northeastern coast Friday. A magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit close to the epicenter of the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the United States Geological Survey says.

Read more »

Dark Fluid: Dark Matter And Dark Energy May Be Two Faces Of Same Coin

Feb. 1, 2008

Astronomers at the University of St Andrews believe they can "simplify the dark side of the universe" by shedding new light on two of its mysterious constituents.

                           Dr HongSheng Zhao, of the University's School of Physics and Astronomy, has shown that the puzzling dark matter and its counterpart dark energy may be more closely linked than was previously thought.

Only 4% of the universe is made of known material - the other 96% is traditionally labelled into two sectors, dark matter and dark energy.

A British astrophysicist and Advanced Fellow of the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, Dr Zhao points out, "Both dark matter and dark energy could be two faces of the same coin.

"As astronomers gain understanding of the subtle effects of dark energy in galaxies in the future, we will solve the mystery of astronomical dark matter at the same time. "

Astronomers believe that both the universe and galaxies are held together by the gravitational attraction of a huge amount of unseen material, first noted by the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1933, and now commonly referred to as dark matter.

Dr Zhao reports that, "Dark energy has already revealed its presence by masking as dark matter 60 years ago if we accept that dark matter and dark energy are linked phenomena that share a common origin."

In Dr Zhao's model, dark energy and dark matter are simply different manifestations of the same thing, which he has considered as a 'dark fluid'. On the scale of galaxies, this dark fluid behaves like matter and on the scale of the Universe overall as dark energy, driving the expansion of the Universe. Importantly, his model, unlike some similar work, is detailed enough to produce the same 3:1 ratio of dark energy to dark matter as is predicted by cosmologists.

Efforts are currently underway to hunt for very massive dark-matter particles with a variety of experiments. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva is a particle accelerator that amongst other objectives, could potentially detect dark matter particles.

According to Dr Zhao, these efforts could turn out to be fruitless. He said, "In this simpler picture of universe, the dark matter would be at a surprisingly low energy scale, too low to be probed by upcoming Large Hadron Collider.

"The search for dark-matter particles so far has concentrated on highly-energetic particles. If dark matter however is a twin phenomenon of dark energy, it will not show up at instruments like the LHC, but has been seen over and over again in galaxies by astronomers."

However, the Universe might be absent of dark-matter particles at all. The findings of Dr Zhao are also compatible with an interpretation of the dark component as a modification of the law of gravity rather than particles or energy.

Dr Zhao concluded. "No matter what dark matter and dark energy are, these two phenomena are likely not independent of each other."

Background

Theories of the physics of gravity were first developed by Isaac Newton in 1687 and refined by Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity in 1916 which stated that the speed of gravity is equal to the speed of light. However, Einstein was never fully decided on whether his equation should add an omnipresent constant source, now called dark energy in general.

Astronomers following Fred Zwicky have also speculated additional sources to Einstein's equation in the form of non-light emitting material, called dark matter in general. Apart from very light neutrinos neither dark sources have been confirmed experimentally.

Dr Zhao and his collaborators' findings have recently been published by Astrophysical Journal Letters in December 2007, and Physics Review D. 2007.

Read more »