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| A centuries-old stone marker in Aneyoshi warns of tsunami dangers. |
Here's another reason to learn your history.
I've always been a huge proponent of making sure you know your history so that you aren't doomed to repeat its mistakes.
My wife doesn't seem to buy into that adage, and boy could I tell you stories about my family problems... but I'm afraid you may have to wait 20 years before I'm ready to tell those tales. It certainly is a wonderful rife, at best.
For now, you'll have to be content with my tales of angst, woe, malice and pure enjoyment of my life in Japan. As usual, I will toss in some stories about trends and facts I think you will find interesting... like this one.
Down below is an Associated Press (AP) article written by Jay Alabaster. It was published on April 6, 2011, so some data contained within may be a little old, but still, the message is there that tells you how:
Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press – Wed Apr 6, 2:47 pm ET
MIYAKO,Japan – Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan'sdestructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a singlecenturies-old tablet saved the day."High dwellings are the peaceand harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember thecalamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below thispoint."
It was advice the dozen or so households of Aneyoshiheeded, and their homes emerged unscathed from a disaster thatflattened low-lying communities elsewhere and killed thousands alongJapan's northeastern shore.
Hundreds of such markers dot thecoastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crudewarning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lineshave made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over thecenturies.
The markers don't all indicate where it's safe tobuild. Some simply stand — or stood, until they were washed away by thetsunami — as daily reminders of the risk. "If an earthquake comes,beware of tsunamis," reads one. In the bustle of modern life, manyforgot.
More than 12,000 people have been confirmed dead andofficials fear the number killed could rise to 25,000 from the March 11disaster. More than 100,000 are still sheltering in schools and otherbuildings, almost a month later. A few lucky individuals may move intothe first completed units of temporary housing this weekend.
Workersat the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex finallyhalted a leak of radioactive water into the Pacific on Wednesday, butit may take months to bring the overheating reactors under control.
Anatural disaster as large as last month's 9.0 earthquake and tsunamihappens perhaps once in a person's lifetime, at most. Tokyo ElectricPower Co., the nuclear plant operator, clearly wasn't prepared. Manycommunities built right to the water's edge, some taking comfort,perhaps, in sea walls built after a deadly but smaller tsunami in 1960.
Many did escape, fleeing immediately after the quake. In some places, it was a matter of minutes. Others who tarried, perished.
"Peoplehad this crucial knowledge, but they were busy with their lives andjobs, and many forgot," said Yotaru Hatamura, a scholar who has studiedthe tablets.
One stone marker warned of the danger in the coastalcity of Kesennuma: "Always be prepared for unexpected tsunamis. Chooselife over your possessions and valuables."
Tetsuko Takahashi, 70,safe in her hillside house, watched from her front window as othersignored that advice. She saw a ship swept a half-mile (nearly akilometer) inland, crushing buildings in its path.
"After theearthquake, people went back to their homes to get their valuables andstow their 'tatami' floor mats. They all got caught," she said.
Herfamily has lived in Kesennuma for generations, but she said those thatexperienced the most powerful tsunamis died years ago. She can onlyrecall the far weaker one in 1960, generated by an earthquake off Chile.
Earliergenerations also left warnings in place names, calling one town"Octopus Grounds" for the sea life washed up by tsunamis and namingtemples after the powerful waves, said Fumihiko Imamura, a professor indisaster planning at Tohoku University in Sendai, a tsunami-hit city.
"Ittakes about three generations for people to forget. Those thatexperience the disaster themselves pass it to their children and theirgrandchildren, but then the memory fades," he said.
The tightly knit community of Aneyoshi, where people built homes above the marker, was an exception.
"Everybodyhere knows about the markers. We studied them in school," said YutoKimura, 12, who guided a recent visitor to one near his home. "When thetsunami came, my mom got me from school and then the whole villageclimbed to higher ground."
Aneyoshi, part of the city ofMiyako, has been battered repeatedly by tsunamis, including a huge onein 1896. Isamu Aneishi, 69, said his ancestors moved their family-runinn to higher ground more than 100 years ago.
But his threegrandchildren were at an elementary school that sat just 500 feet (150meters) from the water in Chikei, a larger town down the winding,cliffside road. The school and surrounding buildings are in ruins. Thebodies of his grandchildren have not been found.
Farther south,the tsunami washed away a seven-foot (two-meter) tall stone tablet thatstood next to a playground in the middle of the city of Natori. Itsmessage was carved in giant Japanese characters: "If an earthquakecomes, beware of tsunamis."
That didn't stop some people fromleaving work early after the earthquake, some picking up their childrenat school en route, to check the condition of their homes near thecoast.
Many didn't make it out alive. More than 820 bodies havebeen found in Natori, some stuck in the upper branches of trees afterthe water receded. Another 1,000 people are still missing.
HiroshiKosai grew up in Natori but moved away after high school. His parents,who remained in the family home, died in the disaster.
"Ialways told my parents it was dangerous here," said the 43-year-oldKosai, as he pointed out the broken foundation where the tablet oncestood. "In five years, you'll see houses begin to sprout up here again."
And there you have another interesting side-bar into the triple disasters that have hit (and in the case of the nuclear problem) and continue to hit Japan.
Somewhere studying history,
Andrew Joseph
