By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Tokyo : Japan Sunday marked the first anniversary of the devastating 9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami which killed almost 15,000 people.
The disaster claimed at least 14,919 lives and triggered a number of explosions at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, causing a partial meltdown at three of its reactors. Another 4,000 were missing.
Radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater, becoming the world’s worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl in 1986.
A mourning ceremony held in Tokyo was attended by Japanese Emperor Akihito, who recently underwent heart surgery.
One minutes’s silence was observed at 14.46 p.m. (6.46 a.m. GMT) – the exact time the quake struck – throughout Japan.
Flowers were planted in the quake-hit areas, Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate.