Gillard at ground zero

AN EMOTIONAL Julia Gillard has toured Minamisanriku, a once tranquil Japanese fishing town that was obliterated by the recent tsunami.

The Prime Minister, who was the first foreign dignitary to tour the devastated region, joined the town's mayor, Jin Sato, to survey the devastated frame of a building that was once the town's disaster management centre.

Mr Sato was inside when the torrent of water hit. He fled to the roof and hung on as the wave engulfed the building, sweeping his friends and colleagues to their deaths.

Ms Gillard was close to tears and gave Mr Sato a comforting embrace as he told her his story.

The Prime Minister said she had never seen anything like it - it looked as if the town had been ''bombed into oblivion''.

''The scale of this truly just does leave you speechless,'' Ms Gillard said yesterday. ''On one level, you can't take it in because it's just so much. It's a scene of incredible tragedy and incredible sorrow.''

More than 25,000 people are believed to have been killed by the March 11 tsunami - thousands died in Minamisanriku alone. Early reports said about half the town's population was killed. Ms Gillard also visited an evacuation centre to introduce herself to locals, who lost homes and loved ones.

She handed soft koala toys from Tourism Australia to excited children and announced a package of food aid for the townspeople. The package included cans of soup, baked beans and spaghetti, cookies, beef jerky and chocolate biscuits including Tim Tams.

Mr Sato and the Japanese government requested the food and toy package. ''We hope this food aid will help the people of Minamisanriku at this very difficult time, and in their immense task of rebuilding,'' Ms Gillard said.

She almost did not make it to the town after her flight into nearby Sendai - also hard hit by the tsunami - was delayed by bad weather and visibility. She had been expected to take a helicopter to the shattered town in the Miyagi prefecture but the delay forced her to take a bus instead.

Ms Gillard was accompanied by Rob McNeil, the leader of the Australian search and rescue team, which helped Japanese authorities in the search for survivors in the Minamisanriku wreckage last month.

Mr McNeil said he had found it hard to say goodbye.

''I looked into the proud fire commander's eyes from the Kyoto fire department and I couldn't help but think of how he must feel, knowing that thousands of his country's families and homes had been destroyed and lost forever,'' the ABC reported. ''He and his team reminded me of the samurai spirit.''

Ms Gillard arrived in the South Korean capital, Seoul, yesterday for the next leg of her north Asian tour.

Another 200 bodies found in quake-hit coastal areas (Photos)

Police in Japan said Sunday they have found another 200 bodies in the quake-ravaged coastal areas of the north.
Police officials in Miyagi told the Associated Press that authorities were recovering the bodies, but did not provide further details and declined to be identified, citing departmental policy.
Meanwhile, Japan's Meteorological Agency has upgraded the magnitude of Friday's quake to 9.0 after analyzing seismic waves. The agency earlier measured it at 8.8 magnitude.
The quake was the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s. The agency warned Sunday of more strong aftershocks after Friday's quake which unleashed massive tsunamis and killed at least 763 people -- with estimates nearing the 1,700 mark.
The U.S. Geological Survey has measured the quake at magnitude 8.9, and that number remained unchanged Sunday.
Rescue and recovery
The Japanese government increased the number of troops dedicated to rescue and recovery operations from 51,000 to about 100,000.
Around 10,000 people are still unaccounted for in the Japanese port town of Minamisanriku which was virtually obliterated after the quake and tsunami. Large areas of the countryside were surrounded by water and unreachable.
Rescue teams searched for missing people along hundreds of kilometres of the Japanese coast. At least a million households are still without water and some 2.5 million households don't have electricity.
Meanwhile, strong aftershocks continued Sunday, including one with a magnitude of 6.2 that originated in the sea, about 179 kilometres east of Tokyo.