TOKYO (AFP) – A
northern Japanese city on Monday began scrapping a fishing boat that was swept
far inland by the 2011 tsunami and became one of the most poignant symbols of
the disaster.
A ceremony to bless the ship was held nearby before workers
got started dismantling the 60-metre (200-foot) vessel, named the No. 18
Kyotoku-maru, according to officials in the city of Kesennuma, which was
flattened in the disaster.
The scrapping operation came after nearly 70 percent of
local people said in an opinion poll that they wanted it gone.
The work is scheduled to finish by October 19, officials
said.
Japan's Jiji Press news agency quoted the ship's owner as
saying: "I apologise for troubling disaster sufferers with the presence of
the ship, but it helped show the dangers of the tsunami."
The move reverses earlier plans to preserve the boat as a
monument to the quake-tsunami disaster, which killed more than 18,000 people
and triggered a nuclear accident at Fukushima, the worst atomic crisis in a
generation.
The stranded vessel had been swept around 500 metres (yards)
inland by the tsunami on March 11, 2011, and survived a subsequent fire that
engulfed the small city on Japan's northeast coast.
Since then, the partially charred blue and red vessel has
rested in the middle of a residential district, drawing visitors who pray and
leave flowers at the site.
Source: fox news. 9
September 2013
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