Japanese forced to resort to mass graves instead of individual cremation

In the worst-hit areas, local crematoriums can’t incinerate the deceased fast enough to keep up with new arrivals. There isn’t enough kerosene to burn the bodies, or dry ice to preserve them. As the government’s official toll of the dead and missing has exceeded 21,000 people, governments of coastal villages are running out of time.

Some local governments have started burying the dead in mass graves—an extreme measure in Japan, where some municipalities ban even individual burials, citing sanitary reasons. In other areas, families and officials are seeking to forestall group burials. Some families are reported to have hauled away relatives to organize cremation on their own.

In at least one town, officials are resisting burying its dead, though it lacks alternatives.

“The prospect of pulling the deceased from under rubble—only to bury them again in soil, without even a coffin—is just not something I am prepared to do,” said Futoshi Toba, mayor of Rikuzentakata, a fishing village in Iwate prefecture.