Relatives wept and soldiers saluted as dozens of tsunami victims in simple wooden coffins were buried in a mass grave

Relatives wept and soldiers saluted as dozens of tsunami victims in simple wooden coffins were buried in a mass grave Wednesday in a city in northeast Japan overwhelmed by death.

With makeshift morgues close to overflowing and crematoriums unable to keep pace with the numbers of bodies, the Japanese authorities have taken the drastic step of using mass burial sites as temporary resting places.

The burials in Higashimatsushima began on Tuesday, and 60 bodies have now been interred in a series of 50 meter-long trenches dug at the site of a former recycling center on the outskirts of the town, including 36 on Wednesday.

Japanese usually cremate their dead, but the normal system has been unable to cope with the impact of the March 11 tsunami. The confirmed death toll currently stands at more than 9,400 with nearly 15,000 more missing.

Despite the miraculous rescue of two people from the rubble of one town on Sunday, the main search effort along Japan's northeastern coast switched its focus from survivors to bodies days ago.

Experts say the remains of the vast majority of those missing will never be recovered given the destructive force of the tsunami that wiped out entire communities.