Thousands Still Missing
Great East Japan Earthquake Victims Number Nearly 22,000
The remains of a girl who went missing at the age of six during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake have been returned to her family after fourteen and a half years. On the 17th, Japanese media outlets such as NHK and Mainichi Shimbun reported that the remains of Yamane Natsuse, who lived in Yamada Town, Iwate Prefecture, were discovered on the coast of Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture. The remains were found by chance in February 2023 by a construction worker participating in a coastal cleanup activity. The site where she was found was about 100 kilometers away from where she initially went missing. Miyagi Prefectural Police confirmed the identity as Natsuse through mitochondrial DNA analysis and dental examination on October 9, and handed the remains over to her family on the 16th.
On March 11, 2011, when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, Natsuse was at home with her grandmother and was swept away by the waves. While her grandmother was rescued, Natsuse remained among the approximately 2,500 people who went missing. The family searched evacuation centers and morgues for several months after the disaster, but ultimately could not find any trace of the child.
On November last year, marking the 13th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, residents of Sendai, Japan, prayed in remembrance of the victims. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011, caused nearly 20,000 residents to die or go missing. Photo by Yonhap News Agency
After eventually filing a death report, the bereaved family honored her every year on her birthday by placing her favorite cake on the family altar. Her mother, Chiyumi (49), was reported to have whispered, "Welcome back, thank you for coming home," as she held the small urn close. She said, "Though I cannot see you, it finally feels as if all four of us are living together again. It feels as if the clock that had stopped has started to move again," shedding tears.
Her father, Tomonori (52), said, "Now I can finally bring my daughter home. I wish I could have spent more time with her." The grandmother, who had suffered from guilt after losing her granddaughter, also broke down in tears upon hearing the news. Netizens responded to the news by saying, "It feels like a miracle to have found even a small bone fragment," and, "It is as if a devoted daughter has returned to her parents at the age when she would have become an adult."
Meanwhile, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan, on March 11, 2011, triggered a tsunami over 10 meters high in the Tohoku region. In addition, the earthquake and tsunami caused three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to melt down, releasing large amounts of radioactive material. Including 3,523 disaster-related deaths from health deterioration during evacuation, the total number of victims approaches 22,000. Hundreds of people remain missing, and many families are still waiting for their loved ones to return.
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