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Lecture Outline:
Key Concepts: Exposure to earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions as an inescapable fact of Japan's physical geography; translation into human impacts through specific patterns of vulnerability, of physical and human origin; population density and urbanisation as vulnerability compounding factors; significance of maintaining the "metabolism" of cities; potential global repercussions of a major event in Tokyo; events as opportunities for learning and improvement; wealth as a factor in the capacity to cope; substitution of contributory negligence for "acts of god"; paradox of insignificance of geophysical events within overall mortality patterns vs media image and public consciousness; volcanic eruptions as a minor threat due to their location; Mt Bandai (1988) as an exception; importance of volcano monitoring systems; specific vulnerability of volcanic island communities, eg Miyakejima; implications of a reawakening of Mt Fuji; nuisance value of Sakurajima; tsunami as predictable events with avoidable consequences; defence of specifically vulnerable rias coasts (eg Sanriku); trade-offs between safety and convenience in location of coastal settlements; examples of 1896 Meiji Sanriku Tsunami and 1933 Shôwa Sanriku Tsunami; 1960 Chile Tsunami; importance of Pacific Basin monitoring systems; physical factors affecting the impact of an earthquake (after Palm and Carroll: amount of seismic energy released, duration of the shaking, depth of the focus, distance from the epicentre, type of rock and soil on which structures are built, topographic setting, location relative to coast); significant human factors; historical significance of urban combustibility as the major causal factor in earthquake-related damage; case study of the 1923 Kantô Earthquake; unavoidability of major damage/loss of life in the "low city" of eastern Tokyo, and repetition in the March 9/10 1945 air raid; focus of earthquake policy on three main areas (creating disaster-resistant cities, disaster prevention and awareness, earthquake prediction); evacuation routes and evacuation areas; importance of local evacuation; building codes and technological developments in construction; problems of building on slopes and alluvium; liquefaction; environmental pollution caused by earthquakes; precautionary information; disasters radio communication network; food/water stockpiling; national earthquake drills on September 1. This is complemented by a hierarchical series of disaster control centres; paradox of a bureaucratic system for coping with emergency conditions, exposed in 1995 Great Hanshin Awaji (Kôbe) Earthquake (case study); prediction and scientific/bureaucratic myopia (over-emphasis on the coming Tôkai earthquake?); issue of the predictability of earthquakes; problems surrounding the issuance of specific earthquake warnings. Revision Questions: 1. Give a critical account of Tokyo's efforts to prepare for the next major earthquake. 2. Examine the major changes which have taken place since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 in Japan's patterns of vulnerability to extreme geophysical events. Recommended Reading: Environment Agency, Quality of the Environment in Japan, 1995. Tokyo: Environment Agency, Government of Japan, 1995, pp. 468-473 Peter Hadfield, Sixty Seconds That Will Change The World: The Coming Tokyo Earthquake. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1991 Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo and Earthquakes. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, TMG Municipal Library No. 229, 1995 Risa Palm and John Carroll, Illusions of Safety: Culture and Earthquake Hazard Response in California and Japan. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998
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