Rechtsmedizin 2012 · 22:12–16DOI 10.1007/s00194-011-0801-xOnline publiziert: 18. Januar 2012© Springer-Verlag 2012

S.I. Kubo1, 2

1 Disaster Response Headquarters of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, Tokyo2 Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka

Great East Japan EarthquakePostmortem examinations and personal identifications of victims

This special report is an outline of the forensic investigation of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake Di-saster, which was carried out with the assistance of members of the Japa-nese Society of Legal Medicine (JSLM, . Fig. 1). This report will also impact the forensic science community by providing fundamental information on the features of the Japanese med-ico-legal system and mass disaster management and highlights the role of forensic personnel in the response to overwhelming natural disasters.

Outline of the forensic investigation of victims

A massive earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale struck eastern Japan at 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011. The epicen-ter was around 130 km off the Pacific coast of northeast Japan. Strong tremors were observed across a wide area (. Fig. 2). Both human casualties and property damage were concentrated on the 3 pre-fectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushi-ma located along the Pacific coast of the northeastern part of Honshu, the main is-land of Japan (. Fig. 3). This was most-ly due to the huge tsunami triggered by the earthquake, which was over 15 m in amplitude and 40 m in run-up height and which engulfed the coastal areas of these prefectures.

Faced with the devastation, the JSLM established an ad hoc Disaster Response

Headquarter on March 12 and dispatched member pathologists, physicians and dentists to the three prefectures in coope- ration with the National Police Agency. This was the first time such a headquar-ter had been set up since the society is-sued a guideline in 1997 for an integrated support system of mass disaster manage-ment based on the experience of the 1995 great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake.

The first response team consisting of 3 pathologists and 3 dentists departed To-kyo at 10:00 pm on the day of the earth-quake, traveling in vehicles provided by the police due to the paralysis of the pub-lic transportation network. Examination of victims in Rikuzentakata, Iwate, began the following afternoon (. Fig. 3).

Most of the remains were immersed in water and covered with mud (. Fig. 4) and some victims had suffered extensive burns (. Fig. 5). Hypothermia would have also caused death in some cases.

The Headquarters successively orga-nized and dispatched JSLM members through July 6. Some 122 pathologists and physicians contributed a total of 1,090 person-days of work and 31 dentists per-formed a total of 298 person-days of work at the disaster sites. Aside from local phy-sicians and dentist associations, the Japan

Dental Association and Japan Self-De-fense Force also sent support teams to the affected areas.

As of July 29, 2011, the remains of 15,645 victims, including 27 non-Japanese, had been recovered, and another 4,984 peo-ple were still listed as missing (. Fig. 6).

Approximately 90% of the victims were positively identified, in most cases from personal belongings and body features including dentition. In some cases iden-tity was established by DNA profiling and more extensive identification attempts us-ing a computer-assisted dental compari-son system and kinship analysis of DNA profiles, which will be important for identification of as yet unidentified vic-tims and yet to be discovered victims, are now in process. The latter is being conduc- ted by the National Research Institute of Police Science and scientific criminal in-vestigation laboratories of regional police headquarters. Fingernails and blood are the first choices as a source of DNA.

No fewer than 25 countries, regions and international organizations have sent rescue teams and other specialists to the disaster areas. However, partly because of the language barrier, direct overseas assis-tance in the examination and identifica-tion of bodies has not been possible so far.

Tab. 1 Changes in the numbers of inspectors/coroners in recent years

  2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Inspectors or coroners 136 144 147 160 196 221

Assistant inspectors 128 135 143 169 317 358

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Recently, Japanese police departments have been increasing the number of pre-fectural police officers, especially those in charge of the investigation of death scenes and victims (. Tab. 1). This was effective

for handling the large number of remains through wide range mobilization from outside of the devastated areas.

The medico-legal investigation system in Japan, including the medical examin-

er system, is immature and remains an is-sue to be addressed from the standpoint of mass disaster management.

Fig. 1 9 Logo of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine

The Great East JapanEarthquake

Date

Time

Epicenter

MagnitudeDepth

March 11, 201114: 46 (JST)5: 46 ( UTC)38° 6'12''N,142° 51'36''E,Mw9.024 km

Fig. 2 9 Epicenter of the Great East Japan Earthquake

HachinoheHirono

Tanohata

Miyako

Yamada

Ootsuchi

Rikuzentakata

Kesennuma

Higashimatsushima

Tagajyou

Minamisanriku

Oofunato

IshinomakiSendai

Natori

Minamisouma

AOMORI

IWATE

MIYAGI

FUKUSHIMAFukushima

Daiichi NuclearPower Station

Fig. 3 8 Damage concentrated in 3 prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima

Fig. 4 8 Remains of a victim immersed in water and covered with mud. (Photographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura, Fukuoka University, with kind permission)

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Demographic data of the cadavers and missing persons

Age and gender of victims

The 14,999 cadavers found in the 3 pre-fectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushi-

ma consisted of 7,038 males and 7,961 fe-males. In each of the 3 prefectures, the largest number of deaths occurred with people aged 70–79 years. There were 6,749 fatalities of people over the age of 65, which was 45.0% of the total. Elementary school-aged children, from 7 to 12 years

old, constituted 774 deaths, 5.2% of the to-tal (. Fig. 7).

Cause of death

It was considered that about 90% of the cadavers were drowned by the tsunami. The other 10% of the victims were sus-pected to be multiple trauma fatalities.

Postmortem examination of corpses contaminated by radiation

The Nuclear Safety Commission of the Japanese government determined the standard cut-off level of radioactive con-tamination to be 10 mSe/h or 100,000 cpm. If the radiation level of a cadaver was found to be over this cut-off, the postmor-

Abstract · Zusammenfassung

Rechtsmedizin 2012 · 22:12–16DOI 10.1007/s00194-011-0801-x© Springer-Verlag 2012

S.I. KuboGreat East Japan Earthquake. Postmortem examinations and personal identifications of victims

AbstractThis article gives a description of the devas-tating consequences and human identifica-tion procedures used in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan 2011. The problems of communication and transport after destruction of the infrastructure are al-so described.

KeywordsNatural disaster · Mass casualty incident ·  Tsunami · Human identification · Japan

Darsgroße ostjapanische Erdbeben. Autopsien und Identifikationen der Opfer

ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag beschreibt die verheerenden Folgen des Erdbebens und Tsunamis in Ja-pan im Jahr 2011 und die nachfolgend eing-esetzten Identifikationsverfahren. Die Prob-leme, die sich als Folge der Vernichtung der Infrastruktur ergeben haben, werden eben-falls dargestellt.

SchlüsselwörterNaturkatastrophe · Massenkatastrophe ·  Tsunami · Identifikationsverfahren · Japan

Fig. 5 9 Remains of a victim who suffered extensive burns. (Pho-tographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura, Fuku-oka University, with kind permission)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

3 D 7 D 10 D 1 M 3 M 4 M 6 M 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

found

unknown

missing

identi�ed (%)

Fig. 6 9 Timeline of the numbers of cadav-ers found, unknown and identified (D days, M months

0

500

0-910-19

20-2930-39

40-4950-59

60-6970-79

80-8990-99

100-

unknown

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

malefemale

Fig. 7 9 Age and sex distribution of the ca-davers

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tem examination would be postponed un-til after decontamination. However, no corpses were found to be over the stan-dard cut-off level.

Report of the second disaster relief team of postmortem examination pathologists and dentists for Miyagi prefecture

The second disaster relief team of post-mortem examination pathologists and

dentists for Miyagi prefecture worked from March 18 to March 24, 2011.

A total of 10 pathologists and 4 den-tists traveled by bus from the National Po-lice Agency in Tokyo to Yamagata City in Yamagata Prefecture. The travelling time was 7 h because the public transportation system had been destroyed by the earth-quake. From the base in Yamagata City to Miyagi Police Headquarters (PHQs) in Sendai, it took 2–3 h. After meeting at the PHQs, 2–3 more hours were required to reach the postmortem examination site in

Higashi-Matsushima/Ishinomaki. As of March 18, 4,289 victims had been found in Miyagi Prefecture (. Fig. 6).

At the inspection facility, even basic services were destroyed. The temporary resting place/inspection facility in Hi-gashi-Matsushima City was located in a high school gym (. Fig. 8). After post-mortem inspection, victims were en-shrined with their examination papers (. Fig. 9).

The temporary resting place/inspec-tion facility in Ishinomaki City was set up

Fig. 8 8 Temporary resting place/inspection facility in Higashi-Matsushima City. (Photographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura,  Fukuoka University, with kind permission)

Fig. 9 8 Temporary resting place/inspection facility in Higashi-Matsushima City. (Photographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura,  Fukuoka University, with kind permission)

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at the Ishinomaki vegetable and fruit mar-ket (. Fig. 10, 11). This facility in Ishino-maki City was one of the larger inspection places and 200–400 victims were brought there every day. As electricity and water supplies were limited, most activity had to be suspended at sunset.

From March 18 to 24, 1,600 victims were found and 2,459 postmortem exam-inations were conducted in Miyagi Pre-fecture.

Corresponding address

Prof. S.I. KuboDepartment of Forensic Medicine,  Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University  7-45-1 Nanakuma, Jonan-ku,  814-0180 FukuokaJapankuboshin@fukuoka-u.ac.jp

Acknowledgements.  The photographs of the in-spection scenes were provided by Dr. Tomoko Sug-imura, a colleague from the Department of Forensic Medicine.

Conflict of interest.  The corresponding author states that there are no conflicts of interest.

Fig. 10 9 Temporary rest-ing place/inspection facili-ty in Ishinomaki City. (Pho-tographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura, Fukuoka Univer-sity, with kind permission)

Fig. 11 9 Temporary rest-ing place/inspection facili-ty in Ishinomaki City. (Pho-tographs provided by Dr. T. Sugimura, Fukuoka Univer-sity, with kind permission)

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