This morning, nearly a month after the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, a 7.1-magnitude aftershock hit the same region, setting off tsunami advisories and rattling the nerves of a still-recovering populace. Four weeks later, the tsunami's devastation remains pronounced, with radiation fears and legal issues interfering with the clean-up. Efforts to recover bodies have intensified lately, as those affected adjust to their new reality, continuing to mourn and recover what they can -- some returning to work or school. Collected here are recent images from the quake-stricken area, as Japan copes with the ongoing effects of last month's multiple disasters.
Japan Earthquake: One Month Later
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A man watches an area destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as members of a search and rescue team look for dead bodies in Ishinomaki, northern Japan, on April 4, 2011. #
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In this photo taken Sunday, March 27, 2011, a woman stands where her house once did in the destroyed neighborhood below Weather Hill in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The hill was originally built to give fishermen a view of sea conditions but now offers an unforgettable look out over the vastness of the mass destruction left from tsunami caused by the March 11 earthquake. #
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A red flag stands over debris in a devastated area in Watari, northeastern Japan, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. The red flags indicate that residents should allow authorities to clear debris at the locations. #
AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Reiri Kurihara -
School bags are seen at the tsunami-hit Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan March 28, 2011. About eighty percent of the students and teachers were killed or are missing after the school was devastated by a tsunami following the March 11 earthquake. #
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A woman rides her bicycle past a boat in the rubble of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, twenty days after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami March 31, 2011. #
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Japanese police, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, guard the area as a dead body is loaded into a police van in the town of Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors Thursday, April 7, 2011. #
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An aerial view of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is seen in Fukushima Prefecture in this photo taken by the Air Photo Service on March 24, 2011. #
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A destroyed bus sits on a roof of a building after being washed up by the March 11 tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, on April 6, 2011. #
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Tsunami survivor Miyoko Kimura, 84, touches the carved name of her late husband on the stone shrine of the family guardian deity that he dedicated as she visits her home town for the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, on April 6, 2011. #
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In this Tuesday, April 5, 2011 photo, scuba divers search for the bodies of missing people in water of Yoriiso fishing port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan. #
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A tsunami survivor walks past a centuries-old tablet that warns of danger of tsunamis in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan on March 31, 2011. Hundreds of such markers dot the coastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crude warning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lines have made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over the centuries. #
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US airman tech. Sgt. Raymond Decker, 320th Special Tactics Squadron, guides a C130 cargo plane on a motorbike due to lack of guidance lights and airport workers at Sendai Airport in the town of Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 29, 2011. #
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Boys play soccer with volunteers at a school, which now acts as an evacuation shelter, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, on April 7, 2011 after the area was devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11. #
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Dogs wander around a town of Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in northeastern Japan Thursday, April 7, 2011. #
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Members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force search for the victims of the March 11 tsunami in the bay of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan Friday, April 1, 2011. #
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The Empire State Building, lit in red and white as part of a coordinated effort by several landmark buildings around the world to raise awareness for the disaster in Japan, is pictured in New York April 4, 2011. #
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A volunteer staff member in costume peps up a displaced man at a shelter near the area devastated by the March 11 tsunami in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, Thursday, April 7, 2011. #
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A dog rescued from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is seen at Abe Pet Clinic in Ishinomaki, northern Japan April 7, 2011. The pet clinic became the main headquarters for treating and sheltering animals in Ishinomaki since the disaster struck the country last month. #
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Bouquets of flowers are placed before coffins of victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are buried in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, April 3, 2011. #
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A girl sits by a coffin containing a victim of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at a mass grave site in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Tuesday, March 29, 2011. #
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Japanese farmer Takakazu Anzai walks inside a greenhouse that will be used for planting rice near Fukushima, northern Japan April 5, 2011. The operator of Japan's nuclear power plant that has been crippled after an earthquake and tsunami, started paying "condolence money" on Tuesday to victims of the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl while it kept pouring radioactive water into the sea. #
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A mobile phone of a victim is left in ruins of a civic hall destroyed by tsunami in Rikuzentakata April 2, 2011. According to a survivor and local media, between 60 and 100 people took shelter at the civic hall building after receiving the earthquake and tsunami warning. The building was designated as an evacuation shelter in the case of tsunami. Only eleven were rescued by a Japan's Self Defense Force helicopter, one of survivors said. #
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A girl walks with her mother after her first day of school at the Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima, northern Japan April 6, 2011. Over 70 schools began their regular classes on Wednesday in the city of Fukushima, after the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11. #
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Elementary school children share a chuckle as they reunite for the first time since the March 11 earthquake at Masuda Nishi elementary school in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, Monday, March 28, 2011. The words on the blackboard read "How have you been doing?" #
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A grounded fishing boat stands amongst tsunami damage in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture on April 7, 2011, nearly four weeks after a massive tsunami slammed into northeastern Japan. #
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A boy that survived the tsunami plays in a toy car in front of a real car still balancing on its front end after being washed up by the March 11 tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, on April 6, 2011. #
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Japan Coast Guard members try to rescue a dog believed to have survived the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11 and also three weeks at sea, off Kesennuma, northern Japan April 1, 2011. The dog survived in a house swept away to sea three weeks ago by the devastating Japan tsunami was saved by a coast guard rescue team flying over an island of debris. Local television showed an aerial view of a brown medium-sized dog trotting around the roof of the house -- the only part of it floating above water -- before disappearing inside through a broken section of the roof. #
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An empty street runs through the deserted town of Minami Soma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, inside the evacuation zone, established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors Thursday, April 7, 2011. Hundreds of Japanese police and soldiers were mobilized Thursday to begin their first major search operation inside the evacuation zone. #
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Anna Monma, 5, walks with her teddy bear, which she retrieved from her house destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in Ishinomaki, northern Japan April 3, 2011. #
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A Buddhist monk Sokan Obara, 28, from Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, prays for the victims in the debris in the area devastated by the March 11 tsunami in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, Thursday, April 7, 2011. #
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
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