Frozen in their 2011 tragedy

Never forgotten: Ueno praying at an altar filled with portraits of his deceased family at his new home in Minamisoma. — AFP

MINAMISOMA (Japan): In a cold drizzle Takayuki Ueno combs a desolate winter beach for the bones of his three-year-old son, unable to move on in his grief until he finds the remains of a boy killed by Japan’s monstrous tsunami four years ago.

Only the ageing of his daughter, born six months after disaster struck, marks the passage of time for a man who can find no closure until he finds the bodies of the dead – one of thousands of living victims of a disaster that is still playing out. “My daughter Sarii will start going to kindergarten this April, start doing things that her brother couldn’t,” he said.