Japan honours victims of 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster | Al Jazeera

Japan is paying tribute to the nearly 20,000 victims of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast of the country 10 years ago, destroying towns and triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga were expected to join a memorial for the dead at a commemorative ceremony in Tokyo on Thursday, while several other public and private events were planned across northeastern Japan.

A minute’s silence will be marked nationwide at 14.46 local time (05:46 GMT), the precise moment the 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11, 2011.

The onslaught of waves triggered by the tremor crashed into the northeastern coast, crippling the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. More than 160,000 residents were forced to evacuate as radiation spewed into the air.

The disaster has left survivors in Tohoku struggling to overcome the grief of losing families and whole communities to the 15-metre high wave.

As the sun rose in the town of Hisanohama on Thursday, 78-year-old Toshio Kumaki was walking along a giant sea wall built after the tsunami.

“I come here every morning for a walk, but this is a special day,” he told AFP news agency as he pressed his hands together and prayed in the direction of the rising sun.