Japan marks Fukushima nuclear disaster 13 years later, pledges to recover 'at any cost'

Japan commemorated the thirteenth anniversary of the devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Officials vowed to continue rebuilding.

At 2:46 p.m. — the time when the earthquake struck — people across Japan stopped to observe a minute of silence. In Tokyo’s central Ginza shopping district, people stopped to pray on the sidewalk as a bell rang out, marking the moment.

In the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture, a team of 10 uniformed police officers sifted though gravel and sand on the beach in an annual search for the remains of people who are still missing. Survivors prayed by the bare girders that used to be the town’s disaster prevention center, where dozens died. In the town of Natori, about 400 people prayed and released balloons carrying messages of grief.