Miyagi - 7 Years after Japan's Triple Disaster

"Naturkatastrophen kennt allein der Mensch, sofern er sie überlebt.
Die Natur kennt keine Katastrophen" (Max Frisch)

(Natural disasters are only known to humans, provided they survive them.
Nature itself does not know disasters. - own translation)

It has been more than seven years now since Japan's so-called triple disaster, the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and catastrophic tsunami, followed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In total, nearly 18.000 people lost their lives or went missing, most of them due to the tsunami.

What always bothered me ever since that day is how the nuclear accident quickly overtook the news and subsequent media coverage, seemingly overshadowing everything else, including the fact that the majority of victims were claimed by the tsunami that devastated the coastal areas.

For the second time ever - after having travelled the Sendai-Ishinomaki area in 2000 -, and for the first time after the disaster, my wife and I visited part of the area in November 2018. Today, seven years on, while the scars left by the disaster are still visible, it was rather impressive to see what these coastal communities have accomplished in terms of overall reconstruction.

Building damaged by March 11 tsunami, Kesennuma port area

We saw a lot of temporary housing, and while many low-lying coastal areas are by now pretty much cleaned up and feature partially restored basic infrastructure, there are mostly just a few functional buildings here and there, occasionally including an easily accessible multi-level steel structure that serves as a tsunami evacuation point.

Tsunami evacuation platform near the coast (background right)

All the bays and inlets we passed on our way from Kesennuma to Minamisanriku – a ca. 50km drive - were brimming with construction work, and for the same reason the immediate coastlines were often inaccessible. Housing has mostly been moved to higher ground, and many bays featured artificially elevated areas still in need of reinforcement.

Kesennuma aerial view

The majority of construction however seemed to involve reinforcing huge river dams and building new sea walls. According to several sources of information, Japan has built a total of almost 400km of sea walls along the coastlines of Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, some of which are exceeding a height of 12 meters (41ft).

Newly constructed sea wall in Kesennuma port area

Obviously a decision had to be made as to how high these sea wall would need to be in order to sufficiently protect the coastal areas, and it is obvious that the most recent tsunami heights were used for measure. However, I seem to remember that in March 2011 the very existence of such seawalls actually contributed to the devastation of at least some of these coastal towns, since the tsunami was so high that it would actually overflow the sea walls, resulting in the inrushing water being trapped behind the sea walls, thereby causing even more devastation as when the water would have had some area to run off.

Kesennuma tsunami inundation map, displayed in hotel elevator

Similarly, I am wondering if the channeling of rivers flowing into the sea through these walled canals might not in the worst case only increase the damage from a tsunami rather than diminish it. The capacity of these canals is obviously thought to hold any excess water and keep it contained – but what happens if a future tsunami would exceed that capacity?

River fortification on the Sanriku coast

The scale of the natural disaster that had struck Japan on 11 March 2018 was afterwards often described as being souteigai, or “unexpected”, since allegedly no-one could have anticipated a disaster of such monstrous proportions – but what if another earthquake or tsunami would again exceed all experts' anticipations?

One major effect of having these sea walls is obviously the obstruction of any views of the ocean. Unless one moves a little inland and uphill, these seawalls block any view of the ocean behind them. Tourism has been a valuable source of income for these coastal communities before the tsunami, and can only have increased in significance after many of these communities lost their major source of income, which relied upon a thriving fishing industry. But who would want to visit a coastal community when you cannot even see the ocean?

It goes without saying that the large-scale construction of these concrete sea walls and other superstructures is a large boon for the Japanese construction industry; overall, Japan has reportedly spent 12 billion USD. But like with so many other large-scale building projects in the past, local communities were not sufficiently consulted in the decision-making process.

Some experts also argue that while these new seawalls may give the local population a heightened sense of safety, their very existence might actually provide a false sense of security, discouraging people from moving to higher ground – not to mention the potential ecological impact of these superstructures on the local ecology and overall environment.

Ryu No Matsu - the pine tree resembling a dragon. On March 11 it withstood a tsunami of 17 meters | Iwaisaki (South of Kesennuma)

In the middle of all these reconstruction efforts, reminders of the tsunami are omnipresent. Not just in Kesennuma, the northernmost coastal city in Miyagi prefecture, but also in other towns a lot of buildings or other infrastructure feature markers that indicate the maximum height of the 2011 tsunami. The coastal road, part of the Japan National Route 45, is lined with signs indicating the beginning and end of past tsunami inundation areas. Parts of the road have been or are about to be rerouted, since many sections of the highway were inundated, destroyed, or swept away by the earthquake and tsunami. Sometimes these markers could be found many kilometers inland, towards the end of a valley.

Tsunami marker on Oshika Peninsula

In cities and towns there are multiple signs pointing local citizens to the nearest high ground or evacuation area.

Tsunami shelter sign, Higashi-Matsushima

Tsunami evacuation sign, Higashi-Matsushima

Tsunami marker on a hotel near the port area, Kesennuma

Tsunami memorial marker in Higashi-Matsushima

We only learned after our visit to Kesennuma that one of the buildings we saw – now bearing one of the above-mentioned tsunami height markers –, and that had withstood the force of the tsunami, can be clearly seen in a widely distributed video footage of the tsunami that I had seen already long ago. To re-visit that video footage and having been in that very spot sent chills down my spine.

Kesennuma former local government building, Asahicho

Tsunami marker, Kesennuma former local government building, Asahicho

Old and new - debris from the March 11 disaster and construction on a new bay bridge

The one thing that most impressed us though on our visit to the Sanriku coast was the devotion and determination of the local citizens to make this area flourish again. Within the few days we spent in the area we could only visit a handful of cafes and restaurants, all of which were newly opened or re-opened, but it was encouraging to see local citizens doing their utmost to bring back life – and tourism – to these coastal towns. The very nicely designed marketing brochure for Ishinomaki was testament to this devotion, and we can only hope that it will help to further revitalize this beautiful part of Japan's main island.

PR brochures for Ishinomaki and Oshika Peninsula

San Juan Bautista replica & Museum and tsunami marker

Links links with additional information

Images, facts and figures about the 2011 tsunami:

• https://extremeplanet.me/2014/02/04/detailed-imagery-of-the-2011-japan-tsunami/

About the pros and cons of fortifying Japan's northeastern coast with sea walls:

• https://japan-forward.com/the-choice-facing-kesennuma-to-live-with-the-sea-or-against-it/
• https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-seawalls-cost-12-billion-since-fukushima-disaster-2018-3

Some impressive photos of the seawalls in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures:

• https://www.wired.com/story/photo-gallery-japan-seawalls/

The former local government building in Asahicho featured in the photos above:

• http://wwwtb.mlit.go.jp/tohoku/kn/kn-index.htm

….and in video footage taken on 11 March 2011:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0VUeWVByWQ