U.S. helps reopen tsunami-battered Japan airport

SENDAI, Japan -- The first flight in more than a month touched down Wednesday at a coastal airport swamped by Japan's monstrous tsunami, potentially boosting relief and recovery efforts in a battered region still grappling with the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Staff at the Sendai airport stood on the tarmac waving as passengers emerged from a JAL Express flight emblazoned with the logo "Hang in there, Japan." It was the first flight since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 unleashed a 32-foot wall of water that raced across the airport's runways and slammed cars and aircraft into its terminals.

Complete coverage: Disaster in Japan

The area around the airport, which sits about half a mile from the shoreline, remains a twisted wasteland of mud, uprooted trees and the remnants of smashed buildings and cars. Soldiers sift through the debris, looking for the bodies of the more than 15,000 people still missing after the twin disasters. The final death toll is expected to top 25,000.

According to The New York Times, it was a contingent of about 280 U.S. Air Force and Marines who actually worked at a feverish pace during the last month to get Sendai's airport reopened -- but none of them will be there to see it fully reopen to civilian traffic.

The newspaper says the U.S. military has struck a delicate balance in its massive relief operation in Japan -- eager to help a close ally where tens of thousands of American troops are based, but also keen to let the Japanese take a lead role and most of the credit, as that very troop presence often draws protest from the Japanese public.

"Our goal is for no one to notice that we were even here," Maj. John Traxler, a member of the U.S. Air Force's 353rd Special Operations Group, told The Times. The two dozen or so members of the 353rd were the first on the ground at Sendai's airport, and were soon joined by another 260 U.S. Marines in the clearance operation.

The airport will handle only a few daytime flights for now and just one terminal is running, but its opening should help with relief efforts in regional communities virtually obliterated by the tsunami.

"We can only operate in a small area, but I think it's a great step toward recovery," said Naohito Nakano, an operations manager for Japan Airlines.

Hiroshi Abe, 41, whose parents are among the missing, was preparing to board a flight back to the western city of Osaka.

"There's not really anything I can do there now, so I'm flying home," Abe said. "Now that flights are open again I know it will be much easier for me to go back."

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Japan's leaders are urging a return to normality, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan exhorting the public in a televised address to build an "even more marvelous country" and experts cautioning against a relapse into despair among the tens of thousands still living in shelters.

"Let's live normally without falling into excessive self-restraint," Kan said. "We must build a new future."

Nuclear safety officials and the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), reported no major changes Wednesday, a day after the government ranked the accident there at the highest possible severity on an international scale — the same level as Chernobyl.

Video: Japan's nuclear crisis on par with Chernobyl

The higher rating was open recognition that the nuclear crisis, caused when the tsunami washed out the plant's vital cooling systems, has become the second-worst in history, but it did not signal a worsening of the plant's status in recent days or any new health dangers.

Still, the change deepened unease among residents forced to evacuate from a growing area affected by spewing radiation despite government efforts to play down any notion that the crisis poses immediate health risks.

Many residents of the area evacuated around the plant have lost their entire livelihoods, and a group of them focused their anger Wednesday on TEPCO with a demonstration in front of the company's Tokyo headquarters.

The protest by about 20 small business owners from communities near the plant reflects growing public frustration with TEPCO's handling of the nuclear crisis.

"I can't work and that means I have no money," said Shigeaki Konno, 73, an auto repair mechanic, who lived seven miles from the Fukushima plant before he was evacuated along with tens of thousands of others due to radiation fears. "The talk about compensation is not concrete. We need it quickly."

TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu, and other company executives bowed in apology, once again, on Wednesday, after Shimizu pledged to do more to help compensate residents unable to return home or work due to the accident.

Cash payments are being "readied as soon as possible," Shimizu said.

He said the company "will do our utmost" to get the plant's reactors under control and curb radiation leaks that prompted the government to revise its rating of the incident to the worst possible, on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Radioactive isotopes have been detected in tap water, fish and vegetables far from the facility. The government on Wednesday added wood-grown shiitake mushrooms that are raised outdoors to a list of vegetables not allowed to be shipped after high levels of radiation were detected in tests over the weekend.

Shipments of produce from 16 cities, towns and villages around Fukushima Dai-ichi have been banned.