In Photos: Japan marks 6 years since Great East Japan Earthquake

A man lays flowers at a site to commemorate those killed in the Great East Japan Earthquake, in the Yuriage district of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the disaster. (Mainichi)

Two men put their hands together and bow their heads as the sun rises in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Mainichi)

The ruins of a building destroyed by tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake are silhouetted by the rising sun in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the disaster. (Mainichi)

Two men watch the sun rise over Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Mainichi)

A 67-year-old man crouches down in front of a memorial to those killed by the March 11, 2011 tsunami at Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2017. Three of the man's grandchildren died in the tsunami, including one at the school. (Mainichi)

A man, upper left, and his family pray at the grave of his brother, killed in the Great East Japan Earthquake, in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the disaster. (Mainichi)

People attend a March 11, 2017 memorial service outside the ruins of the former Otsuchi Town Hall to commemorate municipal staff killed in the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Mainichi)

People commemorate those killed at an evacuation center by tsunami following the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on the sixth anniversary of the disaster. Most of the evacuees in the facility when the tsunami struck died. (Mainichi)

A man rings a bell for his older brother, who died in a tsunami from the Great East Japan Earthquake, at a memorial at the remains of Nakano Elementary School, in Miyagino Ward, Sendai, on March 10, 2017. (Mainichi)

Fukushima Prefectural Police search for human remains in an area of the town of Namie devastated by the tsunami that followed the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, on the sixth anniversary of the disaster. (Mainichi)

Iwate Prefectural Police search the Otsuchi River for human remains on the sixth anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. (Mainichi)

Japanese Prince Akishino, right, accompanied by Princess Kiko, delivers a speech in front of an altar for the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami at a national memorial service in Tokyo, on March 11, 2017. Japan marked the sixth anniversary of the 2011 disaster in which more than 18,000 people died or went missing. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, Pool)

A woman walks through a neighborhood of temporary housing units set up for evacuees from the Great East Japan Earthquake, with many of the housing units now empty, in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 10, 2017. (Mainichi)