Japan fights to avert nuclear meltdown after quake

A destroyed landscape is pictured in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan yesterday, after an earthquake and tsunami struck the area on Friday morning. REUTERS/Kyodo

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, (Reuters) – Japan battled yesterday to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and to care for millions  of people without power or water in its worst crisis since World  War Two, after a massive earthquake and tsunami that are feared  to have killed more than 10,000 people.

A badly wounded nation has seen whole villages and towns  wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an  international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.

“The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been  the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since  the end