The 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing 10-meter high tsunami that struck Japan made more than 350,000 people homeless.

Food, water, medicine and fuel are short in some parts, and low temperatures during Japan's winter are not helping.

Official tolls of dead and missing are rising steadily -- to 8,450 and 12,931 respectively on Monday.

They could jump dramatically since police said they believed more than 15,000 people had been killed in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami.

Scores of nations have pledged aid to victims, but little is visible in many devastated towns and villages.

All we have had is the clothes on our backs. But they are good enough. They've kept us warm through all of this, said Machiko Kawahata as she, her daughter and granddaughter looked for clothes at a drop-off point in Kamaishi, a coastal town.

We will make do and we will make it through this.

While Japanese have been focused on the rescue operation rather than recriminations, media and others have raised questions over the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) performance.

Easing Japan's gloom briefly, local TV showed one moving survival tale: an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson rescued from their damaged home after nine days.

The world's third largest economy has suffered an estimated $250 billion of damage with entire towns in the northeast obliterated in Japan's darkest moment since World War Two.

Earthquake and tsunami survivors walk through a flooded street searching for their belongings in the destroyed residential area of Kesennuma
Survivors walk through a flooded street searching for their belongings at high tide, in the destroyed residential area of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, more than a week after the town was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami March 19, 2011. REUTERS
Shigemasa Kanno, 74, holds a photograph of his missing 68-year-old wife Sueko Kanno, at the debris of his destroyed house in Rikuzentakata
Shigemasa Kanno, 74, holds a photograph of his missing 68-year-old wife Sueko Kanno, at the debris of his destroyed house in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, March 19, 2011. He has been searching for his wife amid the debris. The area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11. REUTERS
Japanese rescue workers pause from their operation in the destroyed residential part of Ofunato
Japanese rescue workers pause from their operation in the destroyed residential part of Ofunato more than a week after the area was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami March 20, 2011. REUTERS
Emergency workers look out from the side of a hill near the debris area near the seaside in Rikuzentakata
Emergency workers look out from the side of a hill near the debris area near the seaside in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, March 19, 2011. The area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11. REUTERS
Woman holds fire extinguishers as she cleans her house among the ruins of the destroyed residential part of Kamaishi
Tomoko Yagi holds fire extinguishers as she cleans her house among the ruins of the destroyed residential part of Kamaishi, more than a week after the town was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, March 20, 2011. REUTERS
Japan Tsunami Japan quake Tsunami