Japan falls silent for tsunami victims

Kumi Kotsuji, second from left, who lost her parents and sister in the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami prays with relatives at the site where her family's house once stood, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, March 11 2012. Japan on Sunday was remembering the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world's worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century. AP PHOTO/KOJI SASAHARA

TOKYO – Japan fell silent Sunday for a minute to remember the 19,000 people who were killed when a huge tsunami smashed into the country’s northeast coast.

Ceremonies around the disaster zone and in Tokyo were held to mark the exact minute the 9.0 magnitude quake struck at 2.46pm (0546 GMT), unleashing the deadly wave.

In the official commemoration in the capital, Japan’s solemn national anthem rang out before the emperor and senior politicians stood in silence in memory of those who died in the country’s worst post-War disaster.

Television footage from around the nation showed smaller scale ceremonies, many held in the battered remains of tsunami-hit towns, where tearful people remembered friends and relatives killed by the powerful waves of last March.