OKUMA, Japan - Under tight government supervision, dozens of villagers from a town where Japan's disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is located have ventured deep into an irradiated no-man's land to hold a belated memorial for friends and relatives who died in March's massive earthquake and tsunami.

They found their town - evacuated for more than four months - is fast becoming a wilderness.

Wearing full-body protective gear and white face masks because of the continued risk of radiation exposure, the families bowed their heads in silence Sunday before a shattered public hall as a Buddhist priest chanted sutras and burned incense for the dead. Their village, Okuma, is where four of the nuclear plant's six reactors are located.