"The country is not able today to organize ambitious events, so they are quite intimate ceremonies taking place today," said FRANCE 24 correspondent found in Japan, Marie Linton.
On Monday, one month to the day after the magnitude 9 quake and tsunami occurred on March 11 giants, a minute's silence was observed in the north-east by the survivors and rescuers at 2:46 p.m. (5:46 GMT). At the exact time of the first quake, sirens sounded and the local population was immobilized to honor the victims.
According to the latest report from the authorities, at least 27,000 people died or disappeared in the disaster, and 150,000 people were left homeless.
Members who participate in rescue and search for bodies of victims have interrupted their work to this tribute before resuming operations as soon as the minute's silence ended.
"We saw last month: the Japanese are collected, but also very modest in the way they express their pain," reflects Mary Linton. "But they will long remember the disaster, the worst ever for the islands since the Second World War," she says.
Fukushima always worries
One month after the earthquake, the situation remains precarious in the country. Since March 11, Japan was hit by several aftershocks.On Monday, a new tremor of 7.1 magnitude shook the north-east and a new tsunami warning has been run before being lifted soon after.
Especially, the situation remains worrisome in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (No. 1), 250 kilometers north of Tokyo, where the six reactors were decommissioned by the tsunami on 11 March. The waters had broken their power and embedded generators. The following days, the nuclear fuel was heated, causing an explosion of buildings and, ultimately, a leak of radioactivity.
A month later, experts believe that the worst was avoided, although the situation remains precarious."We saw no signs of real improvement," worries the Japanese media on Monday. Indeed, the Japanese authorities and utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) have not yet managed to fully control the situation. According to Japanese media, the authorities are even considering expanding the exclusion zone around the plant because of high levels of radioactivity.
Questioned by AFP, an industrial sector said that the staff working on the central act "in a rugged environment that does not work in normal conditions." He said "it will take weeks if not months to achieve proper control over the situation."
