Japan remembers, rebuilds one year after tsunami

Mourning the loss of almost 20,000 people gripped Japan yesterday on the anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. While the nation has made enormous strides recovering from the triple disaster, yesterday was was a time for remembrance. But the country is rebuilding even as it still suffers the loss of lives and the economic effects of an estimated $210 billion price tag - the costliest natural disaster in human history. Gathered here are images from memorial services, the rebuilding efforts, and of people forging ahead with altered lives a year on from the catastrophe.


Families release a paper lantern in memory of the victims of last year's earthquake and tsunami, on March 11, 2012 in Natori, Japan. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)


Keiko Suzuki prays at the site where her home used to stand on March 11, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. Her uncle Kazuyoshi Sugawara who lived across the street was killed when his home was swept away by the tsunami last year. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)


Mihaya Sato, 15, cries with friends after the first graduation ceremony since last year's disaster at the Shizukawa Junior High School on March 10, 2012 in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)


Tomoe Kimura (right), an evacuee of Okuma town, holds a bouquet with another evacuee as they walk towards a mourning event for those killed by the disaster during a temporary visit to the nuclear exclusion zone in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)


People look at candles at a park in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2012. Some 3,000 candles with messages written mainly by children lit the park to commemorate the first anniversary of the disaster. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)


Wakana Kumagai, 7, holds her illustration of her father, who was killed by the tsunami, herself and her mother in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture March 11, 2012. Her father Kazuyuki called his wife Yoshiko just after the March 11, 2011 earthquake to tell her to take the children to Omagari elementary school which was serving as a shelter. He was found near the shelter four days after the tsunami, Yoshiko said. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


Tetsuya Sato and his wife Akemi, whose relatives went missing in the tsunami, offer prayers for the victims at Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)


Buddhist monks offer prayers for victims of the disaster at Kitaizumi beach in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)


A couple pray where their home was before the disaster in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)


Wakana Kumagai (see picture number 7) visits the spot where her house used to stand in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


People join hands facing the sea to mourn victims of the disaster in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Kyodo/Reuters)


Hikari Oyama, 8, plays with bubbles after she and her grandmother payed their respects at the memorial to victims of the last year's tsunami at the Okawa Elementary School, where 74 children were killed and 4 are still missing, on March 11, 2012 near Ishinomaki, Japan. "I thought bubble suits better for children rather than incense sticks, so that is why I play with bubble here. And it always makes people laugh and relax," Oyama's grandmother said. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)


People hang paper cranes designed as prayers for the the souls of victims of the disaster in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)


A woman looks at paper lanterns created at a memorial for the victims of the disaster in Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)


A woman attends a ceremony in an area damaged during the disaster in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)


Paper lanterns, lit to mourn the disaster victims, are released into the sea in Yamada town, Iwate Prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Kyodo/Reuters)


Beams of lights, marking the first anniversary of the disaster, illuminate the sky above a destroyed area in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


A single pine tree that was left standing after the tsunami last year which swept away an entire forest, stands on March 10, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. The effected areas have been inundated with families and the limited amount of hotels in the area are at capacity with the world's media arriving to take part in ceremonies. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)


Mai Otomo, 17, whose father was killed by the tsunami, lays a flower bouquet on the Arahama beach and offers prayers for the victims in Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)


Koshi Kikuta, a sake brewer of Kakuboshi Co, a sake maker since 1902, mixes malted rice during a new sake brewing process in Kesennuma, which was affected by the disaster in Miyagi prefecture on February 21, 2012. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


Employees cerebrate after restarting a paper machine at the Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ishinomaki Mill in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on March 9, 2012. The company restarted the main paper machine which was damaged by the tsunami. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg)


A samba dancer walks carefully in the snow after performing at the opening of a temporary shopping complex at the Shizugawa district in Minamisanriku town north of Sendai on February 25, 2012. Small shops that were destroyed in the disaster resumed their businesses in prefabricated buildings. To survive, towns such as Yamada, Miyako or Minamisanriku need local people, who are increasingly drifting away to the cities, to hang on. But they also need to revamp industries - fishing and farming - and bring and retain longer-term investment and jobs. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)


Tokio Ito welds on the first two fishing ships to be built since last year's tsunami destroyed the Kidoura ship building yard, on March 8, 2012 in Kesennuma, Japan. Numerous fishing towns had their equipment, factories, boats and livelihoods washed away. As a result large numbers of fisherman have turned to alternative industries, including laboring to clean the mountains of rubble left behind the tsunami, but most fight the uphill battle of rebuilding from scratch. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)


A Kanto Auto Works Ltd. employee inspects an engine for a Toyota Aqua hybrid vehicle on the production line of the company's Iwate Plant in Kanegasaki Town, Iwate Prefecture, Japan on March 9, 2012. Toyota now makes more cars in the Tohoku area than it did before the disaster, leading a regional recovery by electrical component suppliers and makers of cars and chips. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg)


Tsuyako Kumagai, a survivor of the tsunami, touches a therapeutic robot baby seal called 'Paro' in temporary housing in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture on February 11, 2012. The seal robots have been made available to people living in temporary houses erected in a baseball stadium in the port town of Kesennuma, an area badly hit by the tsunami. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)


Photographer Kenichi Funada takes a portrait of Misako Yokota as part of the 3.11 Portrait Project at the Midorigaoka temporary shelter in Koriyama, Fukushima on December 17, 2011. The 3.11 Portrait Project, with the help of hair and makeup artists and other volunteers, takes portraits of earthquake survivors in Tohoku, many of whom lost all of their family pictures in the disaster. The portraits are then sent to schoolchildren from non-disaster areas, who frame the portraits and send them back to the survivors along with personal messages of support. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)


Tokie Sakamoto reacts as she flips through an album of her family photographs, which were washed away by the tsunami, after receiving them from volunteer in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on February 20, 2012. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


A man looks for his photographs at a collection center for items found in the rubble of an area devastated by the disaster in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture on March 9, 2012. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)


Machines work to sort and clear massive piles of scrap metal and debris on March 9, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. The Japanese government faces an uphill battle with the need to dispose of rubble as it works to rebuild economies and livelihoods. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)


A bus is removed from a roof in Ogatsu district in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)


Police officers search for bodies in an area damaged by the disaster in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture on March 9, 2012. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)


Tei Eiki cries after paying her respects to the victims of the disaster in front of the ruined Minamisanriku Disaster Emergency Center during a bus tour of the devastated areas on March 5, 2012 in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)


Demonstrators denounce nuclear power plants in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2012. Some 16,000 people took part in the rally. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)


A worker prepares to exit the emergency operation center at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan on February 20, 2012. (ssei Kato/Pool via Bloomberg)


A temporary worker for the Fukushima prefectural government puts beans inside a radiation measuring instrument at the Fukushima municipal office Azuma branch in Fukushima, Japan on March 9, 2012. Fukushima city started measuring radiation in food items brought in by residents. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)


Reina Endo, 7, is screened for radiation during a whole-body radiation check at the Minamisoma City General Hospital just outside the nuclear evacuation zone on March 9, 2012 in Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Radiation is still being emitted from the shuttered nuclear plant. Over 20,000 people are registered on waiting lists to get their radiation levels measured. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)#


Saiko Yokozeki holds a a Geiger counter with her children at a playground near her home in Tokyo on March 3, 2012. Becquerels and sieverts are part of everyday vocabulary, Geiger counters are household items in parts of the country, and saving electricity has become a year-round activity as the myth of clean and safe nuclear energy is dead. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)#


A child takes cover underneath his desk during a disaster drill named "Shakeout Tokyo" at Izumi elementary school in Tokyo on March 9, 2012. Tokyo's Chiyoda ward residents, commuters, office workers and school children held a mass disaster drill in preparation for the next big earthquake. (Issei Kato/Reuters)#


Takuro Shimamura (left) and Syogo Kashiwa, from the baseball club at Takata High School take a training run through the area damaged by the tsunami in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan on February 14, 2012. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg)#


Hiromi Sato gave birth to her son Haruse at the Ishinomaki Red Cross hospital on March 11, 2011, the day of the disaster. In a fortunate twist of fate, her husband Kenji Sato took time off from work to see his third child born at a hospital in the nearby port city. A year on, the Satos are planning a quiet birthday with some cake and ice cream for the child who, his grandmother Kazuko insists, "was born to save us". (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)#

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Protests in Afghanistan

Angry protests broke out and shock rippled through Afghanistan on February 21 when accounts surfaced that NATO personnel at Bagram Air Base had burned a number of Korans and were preparing to burn more. A NATO spokesman said the books were inadvertently sent for incineration after being gathered at a detention facility for suspected insurgents. The incident brought nearly a week of strong anti-American demonstrations in which 30 people, including American troops were killed and many others wounded. Despite President Obama's letter of apology to President Hamid Karzai, the violence escalated. Two American soldiers were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry building in Kabul on Feb. 25. On Feb. 27, two suicide attackers detonated a car bomb at the entrance to a NATO air base in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing as revenge for the burning of the Korans. While the violence raged, Afghan civilians faced harsher than usual winter weather and cold temperatures in which more than 40 people, mostly children, have frozen to death.


Afghan demonstrators show copies of the Koran allegedly set alight by US soldiers, during a protest against Koran desecration at the gate of Bagram airbase, Feb. 21, 2012 at Bagram, north of Kabul. The copies of the burned Korans and Islamic religious texts were obtained by Afghan workers contracted to work inside Bagram air base, and presented to demonstrators gathered outside the military installation.(Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


An Afghan demonstrator holds a copy of a half-burned Koran, allegedly set on fire by US soldiers, at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)


Afghan demonstrators shout anti-US slogans at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration, Feb. 21, 2012. Afghan protestors firing slingshots and petrol bombs besieged one of the largest US-run military bases in Afghanistan, furious over reports that NATO had set fire to copies of the Koran. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


An Afghan man aims a slingshot toward US soldiers at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration, Feb. 21, 2012. Guards at Bagram airbase responded by firing rubber bullets from a watchtower as the crowd shouted "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar" (God is greater). (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


Afghan youth throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase, Feb. 21, 2012. Afghan protestors firing slingshots and petrol bombs besieged one of the largest US-run military bases in Afghanistan, furious over reports that NATO had set fire to copies of the Koran. (Massoud Hosssaini/AFP/Getty Images)


Afghan youths use slingshots against US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase, Feb. 21, 2012. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)


An Afghan demonstrator holds a half-burnt copy of Islamic religious text, allegedly set on fire by US soldiers, at the gate of Bagram airbase, Feb. 21, 2012. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)


A wounded Afghan boy stands at the gate of Bagram airbase, hurt during a protest against Koran desecration, Feb. 21, 2012. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


Afghan protesters throw rocks towards a water canon near a U.S. military base in Kabul, Feb. 22, 2012. Several people were wounded when shots were fired as hundreds of angry Afghans gathered in a second day of violent clashes after copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, were burned at NATO's main base in Afghanistan. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


Afghan policemen march toward protesters during a protest near a U.S. military base in Kabul, Feb. 22, 2012. Several people were wounded when shots were fired as hundreds of angry Afghans gathered in a second day of violent clashes. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


An Afghan policeman keeps watch during a protest near a US military base in Kabul, Feb. 22, 2012. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


An Afghan man who was wounded during an anti-US demonstration lies on a gurney bed at the hospital in Kabul, Feb. 22, 2012. Anti-American demonstrations erupted on the outskirts of Kabul for a second day over an incident that the U.S. said was inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a military base in Afghanistan. (Ahmad Jamshid/Associated Press)


Black smoke rises from tires which were burnt by protesters during an anti-US demonstration in Kabul, Feb. 22, 2012. (Ahmad Jamshid/Associated Press)


An Afghan policeman confiscates a US flag from protesters in Kabul, Feb. 23, 2012. The Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign military bases and kill Westerners in retaliation for burnings of the Koran as a third day of violent protests continued. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters)


Afghan policemen form a line outside the American military base during an anti-US demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 23, 2012. Afghan police fired shots in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break into the military base. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


Afghans gathered outside an American military base during an anti-US demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Feb. 23, 2012. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


Afghan men shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Jalalabad province, Feb. 24, 2012. Twelve people were killed in the bloodiest day yet in protests that have raged across Afghanistan over the desecration of copies of the Muslim holy book. (Parwiz/Reuters)


Afghan protesters move the body of a man during clashes in Kabul Feb. 24, 2012. Nine more people were killed in protests in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base, officials said. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


Afghans burn an effigy representing the US President Barack Obama during an anti-US protest in Ghani Khail, east of Kabul, Feb. 24,2012. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


An anti-riot policeman looks for protesters during clashes in Kabul, Feb. 24, 2012. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


An Afghan boy, working at a bakery watches a protest outside his window in Kabul, Feb. 24, 2012. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


Afghan policemen run after protestors during an anti-US demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2012. Thousands of Afghans staged new demonstrations over the burning of Korans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)


An Afghan policeman keeps watch during clashes with protesters in Kabul, Feb. 24, 2012. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters)


Afghan police try to restrain demonstrators during an anti-US protest in Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Feb. 24, 2012. (Jawed Basharat/Associated Press)


Afghan policemen clash with protesters as a helicopter flies over in Kabul, Feb. 24, 2012. Two protesters were shot dead in separate rallies in Kabul. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)


An Afghan protester receives treatment at a hospital after he was wounded during clashes with the police in Herat province, Feb. 24, 2012. (Mohammad Shoib/Reuters)


An Afghan doctor inside a hospital in bloodstained clothes in Laghman province, Feb. 25, 2012. Four people were shot dead by Afghan security forces as protests over the burnings of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base erupted for a fifth day. (Parwiz/Reuters)


An Afghan medic carries a protestor wounded during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Feb. 25, 2012. Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Korans at a U.S. base. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


Afghan demonstrators shout anti US-slogans during a protest against Koran desecration in Kunduz, Feb. 25, 2012. Rock-throwing protesters attacked a UN compound and clashed with police in northern Afghanistan February 25, as a fifth day of protests over the burning of Korans. Thousands attacked the complex in Kunduz as violence flared across the city. The death toll rose to 27 from protests over the burning of Korans by troops from the US-led NATO force. (Gulrahim/AFP/Getty Images)


Wounded Afghan men receive treatment at a hospital after a suicide attack in the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, Feb. 27, 2012. A suicide car bomber killed at least nine people and wounded eight others, targeting a NATO base at Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, police said. Taliban insurgents claimed the attack, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Korans at a US military base. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)


Afghan soldiers are on alert at the scene of a suicide attack at the gate of an airport in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Feb. 27, 2012. A suicide car bomber struck in an attack insurgents said was revenge for U.S. troops burning Korans. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


A child stands with his father as they wait to receive blankets and winter jackets from Welthungerhilfe, a German NGO, during a snow fall at a camp for internally displaced Afghans in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb, 20. 2012. More than 40 people, most of them children, have frozen to death in what has been Afghanistan's coldest winter in years, an Afghan health official said. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)


Afghan girls read verses of the holy Koran in a mosque in Kabul, Feb. 27, 2012. (Ahmad Jamshid/Associated Press)


An elderly Afghan man rides his bicycle as snow falls in Kabul, Feb. 20, 2012. Harsh winter weather has killed at least 40 children in Afghanistan in a month, two dozen of them in refugee camps in Kabul, and aid groups warn of more deaths as temperatures keep falling. Twenty-four children lost their lives in the camps on the outskirts of the capital which house thousands of Afghans fleeing war and Taliban intimidation in southern Afghanistan. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


Snow flies up as a US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter lands at a remote landing zone in Shahjoy district, Zabul province, Afghanistan, Feb. 8, 2012. (U.S. Navy/Reuters)


Afghan teenagers beg near a displaced people's camp in Kabul, Feb. 19, 2012. A harsh winter has killed almost 40 children in Afghanistan in the past month. Twenty-four children lost their lives in camps on the outskirts of the capital. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)


An Afghan boy selling packed peas, waits for customers on a cold and snow covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 19, 2012. (Ahmad Nazar/Associated Press)


An Afghan man rides his bicycle during a snow storm in Kabul, Feb. 12, 2012. Afghans have suffered under particularly harsh weather conditions this winter. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


Mohammad Jamal, 37, an Afghan vendor, warms his hands on fire, selling carrots and turnips as he waits for customers during a snow storm in Kabul, Feb. 12, 2012. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)


An Afghan street barber sits on a plank in the snow as he trims the mustache of a customer in Kabul, Feb. 9, 2012. The National Weather Center meteorologist Abdul Qadir Qadir said temperatures in Kabul dipped as low as -16 Celsius (3 Fahrenheit), with the lowest temperature previously on record at -17C (1F), recorded about 15 years ago. The coldest temperature on record for Kabul was -26C (-14.8 F) and was recorded 40 years ago, he said. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)


A wounded child receives treatment at a hospital in Nangarhar Province, Feb. 12, 2012. Unknown gunmen shot dead a judge and injured six of his family members in the eastern province of Nangarhar. (Parwiz/Reuters)


An Afghan child carries a brick at a factory on the outskirts of the city in Herat, west of Kabul, Feb. 11, 2012. Thousands of Afghan children work to make money to support their families. (Hoshang Hashimi/Associated Press)


An Afghan man chooses fire wood to buy in Kabul, Feb. 9, 2012. The cold, combined with about 50 centimeters (19.6 inches) of snow, caused power blackouts and iced over most of the capital's roads. The bad weather also caused a sharp increase in demand for wood, the main fuel used by the city's five million or more residents to heat their homes. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)


Afghans warm their hands over a fire in Kabul, Feb. 9, 2012. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)


An internally displaced Afghan girl from Helmand province holds her brother as she and another girl stand outside a mud shelter for the displaced at the Charhi Qambar refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Feb. 6, 2012. Fleeing NATO bombardment and Taliban intimidation, thousands of Afghans in refugee camps in Kabul have faced a new enemy: an unusually bitter winter that is killing their children. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


Many internally displaced refugees lack proper clothing and shelter. An Afghan girl wears these shoes during the winter outside a mud shelter at the Charhi Qambar refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Feb. 6, 2012. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


Internally displaced Afghans from Helmand province inside a mud shelter for the displaced at the Charhi Qambar refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Feb. 6, 2012. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)


An Afghan boy sells cigarettes on a snow covered street in front of the war torn Darul Aman Palace in Kabul, Feb. 5, 2012. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)