http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/03/223229.htm

Press Statement

John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 11, 2014

I will never forget hearing the news in my Senate office on that bleak Friday morning: a devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake had ripped through Japan. The images were gut-wrenching: entire cities reduced to rubble; homes razed or washed out to sea; raging waters sweeping away not just cars and trucks and buildings, but the very fabric of people’s lives.

My cousin had recently left for Japan with her husband. I thought of them and of the many other families, Japanese and American, I had personally never met but whose fates were inextricably linked on that tragic day.

Three years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. Today, we remember the courage of the citizens of the Tohoku region and all of Japan. We remember the volunteers from nations around the world who dug deep and pitched in. And we remember the outpouring of emotion, from public condolences to those who shared their grief in private ways – and still do.

I’ve made two trips to Japan as Secretary of State. Every time I visit, in every meeting, I am deeply impressed by the strength of the Japanese people in overcoming the devastation of 3/11. And I know U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy shares in that pride. Like so many members of her family, Ambassador Kennedy has always understood the vital importance of advancing a cause greater than one’s self. That’s why she visited the Tohoku region on her first official trip outside of Tokyo. And that’s why the United States will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Japanese friends as they rebuild their lives and communities.

On this solemn anniversary, I join all Americans in sending our thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/03/10/editorials/rebuilding-shattered-lives/

Editorial
Rebuilding shattered lives
Mar 10, 2014

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... while the number of evacuees has been reduced from the roughly 470,000 just after the disasters, some 267,000 people remain displaced from their hometowns. These evacuees either lost their homes in the tsunami, were forced to leave their communities due to the Fukushima No. 1 plant meltdowns or were voluntarily evacuated due to health concerns over the radiation fallout. Around 252,000 of these evacuees continue to live in small temporary housing units or apartments specially rented for them.

Efforts to rebuild tsunami-destroyed coastal communities by resettling residents on higher ground continue to be slow, while only 3 percent of the government projects to build public housing for evacuees have been completed. In the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, people who lost their homes were able to leave their temporary housing units within five years, but it remains unclear when the evacuees from the March 2011 disasters can return home.

The lengthy time away from home has taken a heavy toll on evacuees, particularly on the elderly. Nearly 3,000 people from Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures have either died from worsening health due to the mental and physical stress of the evacuation, or taken their own lives. About 90 percent of the victims are 66 years or older. In Fukushima, the number of deaths due to post-disaster causes has topped the number of people whose lives were claimed by the earthquake and tsunami. That the number of such deaths continues to rise three years on testifies to the severity of evacuees’ lives.

Around 135,000 people in Fukushima Prefecture alone remain displaced from their homes, nearly 48,000 of them living outside of the prefecture. The prefecture’s entire population has declined by 80,000 from the pre-disaster level. All residents of the municipalities hosting, or close to, the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant continue unable to return to their hometowns. This might remain the long-term fate for the tens of thousands of people whose homes are in areas where contamination levels are expected to stay high for years.

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http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201403080030

EDITORIAL: Plight of Fukushima evacuees deserves serious policy responses

March 08, 2014

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The number of deaths indirectly related to the March 2011 triple meltdown--caused by poor physical health due to living as evacuees or suicides triggered by severe stress and other factors--keeps growing.

In Fukushima Prefecture, where many people are facing the gloomy prospect of having to live as evacuees for many years, there were 1,660 indirectly related deaths as of the end of January. That’s more than the 1,607 deaths directly caused by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami in the prefecture. Fukushima accounts for nearly 60 percent of all indirectly related deaths in the three hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.

In Fukushima, 30 or so people still die every month because of causes that are officially recognized to be linked to the calamity. Also called “nuclear accident-related deaths,” these tragic losses of life throw into sharp relief the dire consequences of a severe nuclear accident that forces many people to live as evacuees for a prolonged period.

In the summer of 2012, the Reconstruction Agency announced the challenges that result from dealing with indirectly related deaths along with measures to deal with them. But last spring the agency carried out a fresh survey to obtain more detailed information about the reality evacuees are facing in Fukushima, where such deaths are showing no signs of decreasing.

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