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YAMAMOTO, Japan — The funeral for Chieko Mori’s daughter and granddaughter was an affront to sacred customs. They were placed in wooden coffins that soldiers lowered into a ditch as a backhoe poured in earth, buried alongside scores of others.
In small-town Japan, the funeral is an elaborate and highly formalized Buddhist ritual in which the body is washed, dressed and cremated, the ashes interred at the family tomb.
“But this is a temporary grave,” Mori’s sister, Tomiko Sato, said, “and the government said they would cremate the bodies within two years, so we can move them to the family grave.”
