DEVASTATING JOLT IN JAPAN : Unsearched Buildings May Hide Japan’s Loss

Half a block from shopkeeper Tomizo Ota’s central Kobe home, a set of two-story wooden apartment buildings lies in charred ruins.

At least 10 people got out alive after Tuesday’s killer earthquake, and eight bodies were taken out after the fire, Ota said.

That would account for 18 people, but the buildings included about 30 homes, most occupied by elderly people. Ota thinks there are more bodies buried in the rubble, but he’s not sure how many.

The same story is repeated in devastated neighborhoods all across Kobe and nearby areas. No one knows how many people are dead. Shojiro Kamikawa, head of the Kobe City Fire Department, the official with primary responsibility for digging the victims out, won’t make even a rough guess.

The official death toll hit 4,924 on Saturday. But that’s just the number of bodies police have counted. The statistic doesn’t begin to reflect what has yet to be discovered under Kobe’s rubble.

Asked Saturday to estimate what the final death count might be, Kamikawa shook his head sadly and said, “I really don’t know.” Pressed whether it might reach 10,000, he replied: “I have no idea.”

“In our system, when the police confirm that there is a body, they add it to the death toll,” said Seiichi Sakurai, public relations manager for the Kobe mayor’s office. “They release numbers after they check bodies. They will never make an announcement based on an estimate.”

The result is that, day after day, Japan has been stunned by the rising death toll.

On Saturday, Sakurai said less than half of Kobe’s “several thousand” collapsed homes have been searched for bodies. Because roads and telephone lines were cut, he said, the police were too busy trying to save lives the first day to take time to total the numbers.

Ota, the shopkeeper, said that based on his observations of the extensive destruction and pace of rescue efforts, he would expect 2,000 more bodies to be found. But it is unlikely anyone in authority would ever make this kind of statement, he said.

“Japanese officials will only say things they are certain of,” Ota said. “If they make guesses or estimates, their superiors will get angry at them. I can say what I want because I don’t have a boss.”

Japanese media stick to the official numbers because they “can’t report things they aren’t clear about,” Ota added.

Kamikawa noted that in addition to the collapsed houses, “a large area was destroyed by fire.”

“In those places many people died,” Kamikawa said. “We have no idea how many.” “