Sometimes common (mass; communal) graves are needed (like after last year’s January earthquake in Haiti…and then again after last October’s Indonesian volcano disaster).

And now…today, in the wake of the March 11/11 earthquake and tsunami, hundreds of Japanese people will be finally laid to rest in one of the country’s first mass burials (burial is highly unusual in Japan—most of the dead are cremated).

South of Sendai, a ten-pin bowling alley only slightly damaged by the earthquake, is being used as a makeshift morgue, housing bodies found in the mud, rubble and streets. Within the 21-lane alley, more than 200 coffins are laid out in rows. Each casket has a viewing window enabling people to identify missing family members. Every once in a while an anguished cry signifies someone has been found. Then a nametag is placed on the coffin, and after the family has paid their last respects the window is closed.

But they are running out of coffins—other bodies, wrapped in sheets, are simply laid atop a blue tarp.

The mayor of one town said, “It is so terrible to find the body of a loved one, but perhaps those families are also lucky. Many people will not find a body at all.”

All the while, still–grieving volunteers continue to dig more pits and trenches for the bodies to come.

In some areas, local crematoriums can’t incinerate the deceased fast enough to keep up with new arrivals. There isn’t enough kerosene to burn the bodies, or dry ice to preserve them.

In the town of Rikuzentakata there are 700 dead…and the crematorium can only burn about seven bodies a day.

So as the bodies decay, time is running out.

In some places, crematoriums are simply unable to run due to damage.

Higashimatsushima is preparing an interim solution—a grave, they said, to hold as many as 1,000 bodies. At the edge of that town, next to a recycling center, construction-company workers are digging holes with earth-moving equipment and hammering metal rods into the ground and placing plywood sheets to serve as barriers between bodies. On hand are Buddhist monks, offering prayers for the souls of the dead.

Japanese officials say these graves in the northeast are temporary—they plan to cremate the dead within two years.

I think most of us would agree that finding a body brings some closure…whether a mass burial is needed or not.

What do you think?

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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