Rescue workers who witnessed the aftermath of Saturday's eruption of Mount Ontake said they were tormented by a sense of helplessness and powerlessness before Mother Nature.
"I believe the victims had no time to escape," recalled Hideki Shionozaki, 43, a rescue worker from the Nagano Fire Department who joined Monday's operations near the peak to search for bodies buried under ash.
As Shionozaki and his team searched for the dead, they saw scenes beyond their imagination — all the world was gray; one buried corpse just had arms and legs jutting from the ash; some bodies were pressed between rocks and were hard to move.