Japan After the Tsunami

In 2013, 12 of us left the UK to study recovery following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.  We went as part of an Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation (EEFIT) mission. From Tokyo, we travelled north to Senai and to towns and villages along the north-east coast. After work, I visited Kyoto.

The disaster

This was a major disaster for Japan. 15,894 people were confirmed dead, and 2,562 people were reported as missing. For the country most prepared for earthquake and tsunami, this was a shocking and traumatic event that will take many years and trillions of dollars to repair. Not least, the tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown of three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Recovery

Fifteen months after the disaster, when we made our field trip, recovery was already underway. New embankments were being constructed along the coast of the Sendai plain in Miyagi Province, and debris had been collected into huge, sorted piles. But further north, in Iwate Province, in the polite Japanese way, a debate was raging between the safety-conscious men who wanted to construct high embankments and those who wanted to maintain their intimate contact with the shore and sea.

Sightseeing

After the mission, I went to Kobe and Kyoto to visit engineers in earthquake institutes. And I also went sightseeing and was beguiled and enraptured by Japanese architecture and landscape.

Published 13 Sep  2017, 48 pages, ISBN 9781912460045