Koji Haga wasn't just near the tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11. He was on top of it. Somehow the fishing-boat captain kept his pitching vessel upright as the churning force of the wave attacked the shore, turning his coastal community of Akaushi into a graveyard of rubble and probably killing upwards of 10,000 people in the country's north. I met him barely 24 hours after he'd returned to the spot where his house once stood. Aside from the roof, which landed not far from his building's foundations, there was nothing recognizable that remained of his home. A few mementos were scattered in the kaleidoscopic wreckage: his waterlogged family albums were lodged in the axle of an upturned car, while his daughter's pink stuffed animal lay facedown in the mud.
(TOKYO) ― Workers at Japan's damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil.
Why Mass Burials Are Another Cause for Grief in Japan
In Higashimatsushima, hollows were dug in the muddied field of a former recycling center. In Yamamoto, unceremonious trenches were tunneled in a vegetable patch. In Minami Sanriku, once a quiet fishing village, tracts of forest have been razed to expose enough bare land for a makeshift cemetery that will accommodate its share of the 11,000 confirmed dead in the three weeks since an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's northeast coast.
Japan One Month Later: Elusive Royals Out of Seclusion to Help Victims
Apart from some miracle rescues, Japan has seen little good news in the month since catastrophe struck. Thousands of bodies have yet to be recovered, hundreds of thousands are homeless, the nuclear crisis lurches on and the government response, while industrious, has been less than fully effective. There is one bright spot, however: Japan's monarchy ― at 2,500 years, the oldest in the world ― has been shaken, at least temporarily, out of its cloistered existence.
This Pokémon-Inspired Device May Help You Lose Weight
If you're looking to shed a few unflattering pounds before beach season officially starts, or simply looking to get your child to be more active, this Pokémon-inspired pedometer could be a safe bet.
A new study conducted by Iowa State University tested the accuracy of several pedometers ― including a standard DigiWalker and a Sensewear armband ― and found this toy, inspired by the mega-selling Nintendo franchise, to be the most exact when it came to counting steps.
To be a Japanese politician is to spend your career exercising restraint. There's the somber suit, the gray demeanor, the vague words that defy position taking. But as radiation wafted from the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant toward the city of Minami Soma, some 15 miles (25 km) away, Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai, 55, abandoned the usual politesse. In an 11-min. video posted on YouTube two weeks after the March 11 natural disaster, the leader lashed out at Japan's political and economic establishment, which had ignored his frantic calls and, as a result, left thousands of local residents stuck in a nuclear no-go zone.
Death Comes for the Master Terrorist: Osama bin Laden (1957-2011)
Almost 10 years ago, Osama bin Laden ghosted away from the Afghan battlefields. Afterward, it was as if the doomsday sheik had slipped into a twilight zone in which the only proof that he was alive was the chilling voice on a spool of tape, the occasional video image ― and the string of terrorist outrages and wars around the globe that claimed inspiration from him and his cause.
Killing bin Laden: How the U.S. Finally Got Its Man
The four helicopters chuffed urgently through the Khyber Pass, racing over the lights of Peshawar and down toward the quiet city of Abbottabad and the prosperous neighborhood of Bilal Town. In the dark houses below slept doctors, lawyers, retired military officers -- and perhaps Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted fugitive.