Silence as Japan marks six months after tsunami

At 2:46pm the eerie wail of warning sirens rang out, marking exactly six months since the 9.0-magnitude quake struck, unleashing towering waves which swallowed whole communities.

In towns along the devastated Pacific coastline, mourners gathered to remember the dead, while in Tokyo anti-nuclear rallies were held over the Fukushima crisis the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

In the coastal town of Minamisanriku, where 900 people were killed and 60 percent of the buildings were destroyed, about 2,000 people dressed in black gathered at a public gymnasium to observe a moment's silence.

"We never give up hope and vow to unite as one in building a new town so that we can make up for the sacrifice of precious lives of many people," Minamisanriku mayor Jin Sato said during the remembrance service.

The March 11 quake struck 130 kilometres (80 miles) offshore and sent giant waves along a 600-kilometre (375-mile) stretch of the scenic northeast coast.

The disaster also crippled cooling systems and sparked meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, some 220 kilometres (138 miles) northeast of Tokyo, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate, still with no idea when they can return home.

"The most difficult thing is that I have lost my job and it is hard to work out plans for my children," Takahiro Murakami, 35, told AFP in Minamisanriku.

"The biggest shock was to see my town disappear."

In the major fishing port of Ishinomaki, where 4,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami, people gathered on a hill overlooking the town below where mounds of debris and wrecked vehicles littered the waterfront.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011