Japan pauses to mark 7th anniversary of tsunami

Memorials held as more than 70,000 people still displaced

RIKUZENTAKATA - They bowed their heads, hands clasped or palms firmly pressed together. They stood in grassy areas or roadsides overlooking the choppy sea. In Japan's capital, they lit candles and offered flowers. Some dabbed at tears.

Japanese marked the seventh anniversary on Sunday of a tsunami that took more than 18,000 lives on the northeast coast and triggered a nuclear disaster that turned nearby communities into ghost towns.