Efforts to Identify Remains Continue in Disaster Areas

Sendai, Miyagi Pref., Dec. 25 (Jiji Press)--More than two and a half years after the monster tsunami, police in affected areas in northeastern Japan have not given up hope of identifying the dead bodies and remains of victims. According to the prefectural police departments of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, which were hit hardest in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, more than 2,500 people have yet to be accounted for. The remains of 104 people have not been identified yet--70 in Iwate, 33 in Miyagi and one in Fukushima. The Fukushima police were the first to start taking DNA from relatives of missing people to create a database. Thanks to these efforts, more than 90 pct of remains were identified within one year of the disaster. The police in Iwate and Miyagi also established DNA databases, and the three prefectural police departments exchange information using their respective records. However, many of the dead are believed to be elderly people with no known relatives, and the lack of documents and other related material have held up progress in identifying them. The Iwate and Miyagi police published sketches of unidentified victims, but the amount of information provided by the public has fallen over time. Stepping up its efforts, the Miyagi police department has organized meetings where those searching for loved ones can exchange information with sketch artists, who give detailed explanations of the bodies, including clothes. Helped by such interaction, Misako Sakaki, 24, from the tsunami-ravaged coastal city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi, found her mother, Hitomi, who died at age 51, in November. A sketch distributed as a flier hardly looked like her mother, but a character printed on the sweat suit in the picture caught her eye. Sakaki talked with the coroner and continued communication until her mother was identified at last by dental records. "I thought she would never come back," Sakaki said. Toru Kaneta, a coroner for the Miyagi prefectural police, said: "Simply waiting for information will not be enough. We will make good use of every opportunity in order to return all victims to families." The Iwate prefectural police department plans to release new drawings by different sketch artists, noting that likeness is subjective. END