Photo/Illutration A coffin is loaded into a vehicle outside a morgue in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 10, to be transported to a funeral hall in Kanazawa. (Shinya Kashimura)

SUZU, Ishikawa Prefecture--Even though nearly a week had passed since the earthquake, Mayumi Izumi had to leave the body of her mother lying in the rubble of her collapsed home until police arrived. 

Yoshiko Terayama, 76, was among the more than 200 victims of the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that tore through the northern tip of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day.

The body was found Jan. 6, but Izumi and other family members had to leave the site after covering it with tarpaulin and blankets.

Rescue workers said there was no knowing whether police officers would come by the end of the day to transport the body to a morgue for an autopsy.

“It was hard to leave her side,” said Izumi, 49. “We would have taken her to the morgue ourselves if we had been allowed to.”

It was not until six hours later that she was contacted by the police.

Terayama’s body was finally moved to a funeral hall on Jan. 10.

Officials said 212 deaths were confirmed in the four municipalities of Suzu, Wajima, Noto and Anamizu as of Jan. 13. The figure includes fatalities not directly caused by the earthquake.

Even after the bodies of loved ones are returned, bereaved family members are often in for a long wait before they can arrange funeral services.

This is partly because the temblor damaged crematoriums in Suzu, Wajima and Noto, rendering six of their eight crematory furnaces inoperable.

The remaining two furnaces are capable of cremating only three bodies a day, creating a backlog.

After days of a rising death toll, the cooperative association of funeral directors in Ishikawa Prefecture began transporting the dead to crematoriums outside the disaster areas in earnest around Jan. 9.

More than 50 bodies are still waiting to be transported, a senior association official said.

Victims are first taken to a funeral hall in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa to allow bereaved families to pay their last respects. The bodies are moved to a crematorium the following day.

“We believe the way bereaved families spend their last time with the deceased is vitally important, to the extent it can greatly affect the future lives of the surviving family members,” said Shinichiro Shiotani, chairman of the association.

Takashi Maeda lost his father, Susumu, who lived in Suzu, in the earthquake.

Susumu, 74, was visiting the home of a nearby friend to exchange New Year greetings, and both were buried under the collapsed house.

On Jan. 7, Susumu’s body was transported to a funeral hall in Suzu. There were more than 40 coffins.

The friend’s bereaved family eventually arranged for Susumu’s body to be sent to a funeral hall in Kanazawa, where Takashi lives.

Susumu, a former fisherman, will be cremated in Kanazawa on Jan. 15, two weeks after the earthquake.

Maeda said he intends to send his father off by covering the coffin with a traditional flag flown by fishing boats to signify a big catch.

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