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Family members grieve over the coffin of Masami Takahashi during a burial service at a temporary burial site in Kensennuma, Japan. Under Japanese Buddhist practice, a cremation is the expected traditional way of dealing with the dead, but now with the death toll so high crematoriums are overwhelmed and there is a shortage of fuel to burn them. Local municipalities are forced to dig mass graves as a temporary solution. More than two weeks after the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan the death toll has risen to over 10,000 dead with still thousands missing and the expectation is that it will end up well over 20,000.

Mourning

( Paula Bronstein, Getty Images / March 27, 2011 )

Family members grieve over the coffin of Masami Takahashi during a burial service at a temporary burial site in Kensennuma, Japan. Under Japanese Buddhist practice, a cremation is the expected traditional way of dealing with the dead, but now with the death toll so high crematoriums are overwhelmed and there is a shortage of fuel to burn them. Local municipalities are forced to dig mass graves as a temporary solution. More than two weeks after the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan the death toll has risen to over 10,000 dead with still thousands missing and the expectation is that it will end up well over 20,000.

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