In memory

what do they pray? ...that ghost radiation should disappear and peace and prosperity should return to Namie soon?

This is just a routine ceremony. It doesn't have deep meanings.

some14: memorial= "done in memory of someone", "a remembrance", " a tribute"

RIP those who died in Namie. The priests and residents deserve respect for going into the exclusion zone to pray for those lost and for the restoration of their community.

I'm with the_harper on this one. RIP to all those lost.

Are the priests holding Geiger counters?

Many patients died inside the 20-km nuclear exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant because some were temporarily left behind and some were transferred from one place to another, to another, to another...

Nearly 45 people out of some 440 patients and workers at Futaba hospital died while or after being evacuated. 90 patients were temporarily left behind at the hospital. The day after the quake, authorities issued an evacuation order 209 patients at the hospital and care home who were able to walk on their own, as well as many of workers, fled the area. However, bed-ridden and seriously handicapped patients were unable to do so. About 90 patients and four hospital workers as well as police officers and Self-Defense Forces members were at the hospital. Following an explosion at the nuclear plant, SDF members remaining at the hospital left there. On March 15, police officers urged hospital staff to evacuate. In response, the staff fled to the neighboring village of Kawauchi, while leaving behind the patients. Later on, about 90 patients rescued by the GSDF team were transported to evacuation shelters but 10 of them died during or after the evacuation operations. The patients were suffering from dehydration because they had not eaten anything for three days. Other patients at the hospital died one after another, reportedly bringing the death toll at the institution to about 45.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/archive/news/2011/04/20110426p2a00m0na006000c.html

All too sad!

Many thanks, Blair Herron; well-informed as usual ...

What kind of a society has hospital staff who leave behind patients? Or police and military personnel who allow it? And who do the same themselves? And to think the world actually raised money to help such a people!