日本明仁天皇16日下午通過電視向日本國民發表講話，他祈禱在這次大地震和海嘯後人民平安，並對正在升級的核危機表示關注。
天皇懷著沉痛的心情表示，這一場大地震帶來了巨大的生命與財產損失，自己為此感到痛心，希望國民不要放棄希望，互助互愛，堅強地生活下去。
天皇在講話中說，這一場史無前例的巨大地震讓許多人遇難，許多人失去了家園。“遇難者人數在不斷地增加，到底會有多少人遇難，現在還不知道，我為此感到十分的心痛。”
他表示：“我祈禱所有人都能夠平安。”
在談到福島第一核電站的核泄漏問題時，明仁天皇對“不可預知”的事態表示“十分關心”，他說：“我知道核電站的情況目前處於十分危險的狀態，有關方面正在努力，希望最終能夠得到很好的解決。”
天皇同時向奮鬥在災區的自衛隊員、警察和消防隊員、海上保安官，向各行各業為救災而工作的國民，向來自海外的各國救援隊表示衷心的感謝。天皇說，自己收到了來自世界各國元首的慰問電，自己感動的是，各國人民都把日本的震災當做自己的事。
天皇說，余震還在繼續，天氣也十分寒冷，一些救災物資還無法及時送到災區，災民們一定十分痛苦，生活一定很艱難，希望大家能夠互愛互助，共渡難關。天皇說：“苦難的日子也許還會很長，但是我們不要放棄希望。希望大家保重身體，為了明天好好地活著。”
Stretching into the distance, waves caused by the tsunami pour over the coastline and rush inland swamping all before them. As the seawater passes over the land it mixes with the soil and begins to change colour to a dark brown
Helpless: A ship, dwarfed by the sheer size of the whirlpool, is drawn ever closer towards the vortex as is tossed about in the foaming waters off the port of Oarai, Ibaraki
Menace: Wave upon wave heads towards the coastline which has already been breached by an earlier onslaught
With fires and destruction all around him a man picks his way carefully though the rubble while (right) there's gridlocked in either direction in Sendai as people try to escape the coastal city
This extraordinary image shows how the quake split this road in Satte on the island of Honshu right down the middle
Two women in Urayasu city, Chiba, scramble up a road that was buckled by the force of the quake. Right, a young woman wells up and leans on her friend as the true scale of the disaster that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people becomes apparent
Collapsed: Three shocked employees look at what has become of the factory in Sukagawa city, Fukushima, where moments earlier they had been working
Raging seas: The tsunami pours through trees and engulfs homes on the coast of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, after the earthquake struck
The same scene just moments later shows how the entire area with dozens of homes is completely obliterated by the unforgiving waters which swept away anything in their path. Bobbing about on the surface is all the debris the waters have picked up along the way
Swelling: The murky flow of mud and debris trapped in the tide of water washes over the tarmac car park at Sendai airport in northern Japan
Destruction: Tsunami tidal waves race upstream along the Naka river at Hitachinaka city in Ibaraki hours after the massive 8.9 magnitude quake struck this morning
Shock: A young couple at a bookshop in Sendai, northern Japan, embrace as the ceiling collapses and the building rocks from the force of the quake while in Tokyo, right, black smoke rises from fires caused by the quake
Aftermath: Clouds of grey smoke billow out of an oil refinery, and an inferno burns at its centre, in Chiba following the earthquake
Concerned: Two office workers in Tokyo brace themselves for a potential disaster as the earthquake rumbled buildings and smoke can be seen rising from skyscrapers outside
Effects: A mother and her daughter watch nervously as pools of water from burst pipes encroach on the pavement in Tokyo while, right, paramedics carry away casualties from a nearby building that was rocked by the earthquake
Red alert: Flames engulf homes that were hit with the full force of the tsunami in the Miyagi region of north eastern Japan
Debris: An eerie mist sweeps across the debris of destroyed homes and cars caught in the raging tsunami waters in Kesennuma in Miyagi, northern Japan
Explosion: Flames reach hundreds of feet into the sky after a natural gas facility in Chiba near Tokyo explodes after the earthquake, while right, a fire tears through residential houses in Yamada in northern Japan
Stranded: Shoppers sit on the floor of a department store as train and bus services were suspended due to the earthquake
Cold: Elderly women who are likely to have experienced a number of earthquakes in their lifetime sit on the street as they take in the most recent disaster which is one of the worst in recent history
Stuck: Stranded commuters inside Tokyo railway station prepare themselves for a long wait as the city, where infrastructure is designed to withstand disasters, recovers from the earthquake
Aftershocks: A frail elderly man rests under a blanket as all around him the country is gripped by the full scale of the earthquake and right, young Japanese people evacuated from buildings at risk of collapsing wrap blankets around themselves
At risk: Confusion spead amoung passengers who were taken off planes at Narita International Airport in Naita city, suburban Tokyo
Pile-up: New cars ready to be shipped are stacked on top of each other after the water gushed through Hitachinaka city in Ibaraki prefecture
The sheer force of the quake is evident in this image of the road in Fukushima which has been flipped, buckled and broken
Aftermath: The remains of houses are surrounded by broken wood and concrete after flood waters engulfed Iwaki town, Fukushima prefecture
Giant fireballs rise from an oil refinery in Ichihara, which lies on the eastern coast of Japan, after being shaken by the earthquake off the coast
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