The nation on Monday marked the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku's coastline and left some 19,000 people dead or missing amid the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Interrupting the slow progress on reconstruction, memorial services were held in the three northeastern prefectures hit hardest by the tsunami as well as in Tokyo and elsewhere, with a moment of silence observed across the country at 2:46 p.m., the time the magnitude 9.0 quake hit exactly two years ago.

Along the Pacific coast, relatives of those killed offered prayers early Monday.