Japan struggles to cope with tsunami and quake aftermath

An elderly tsunami survivor eats dinner under a blanket at a school gymnasium transformed into a shelter in the battered city of Rikuzentakata Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

Victims pass time at a shelter for those evacuated from the disaster zone in Rikuzentakata Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Volunteers prepare food to be distributed to victims at a shelter in Rikuzentakata Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Local residents walk among destroyed houses and debris in the tsunami-damaged city of Rikuzentakata Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

An elderly man makes his way through a flooded area of Rikuzentakata Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

A woman pushes a wheelbarrow as she clear items from her house in Motoyoshi town Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

A woman enters her tsunami-damaged house in Kesennuma town Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

A dog sits outside a relief centre in Minamisanriku Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Residents are checked for radioactivity levels on their shoes at a temporary shelter in Fukushima city Photograph: AP

People wait for a supermarket to open to buy food, which is still in short supply in Ichinosek Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

People enter a Ichinoseki supermarket to buy food amid a shortage in the area Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Mothers weep at an emotional graduation ceremony at Ohya elementary school in Kesennuma Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

A graduation ceremony for the sixth grade at the Ohya elementary school in Kesennuma Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

A Japanese tsunami survivor stands in front of messages displayed on the wall of a relief centre in Rikuzentakata Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

A man places flowers on a grave in a cemetery where quake victims are buried in Onagawa Photograph: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images

Japanese self-defence force soldiers salute after filling a long channel with coffins during a mass burial of tsunami victims at a cemetery in Onagawa Photograph: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images