Disaster Mitigation Education : Present Situations and Problems
Japan, Hyogo Prefecture, Maiko High School Environment and Disaster Mitigation Course Chief of the Course, SUWA Seiji
1. Japan as a Frequently Disaster-Affected Country
Disasters take place frequently in Japan. There are many types of disasters in our country: earthquakes, typhoons, floods, landslides, eruptions of volcanoes, etc. Nobody will deny that Japan is a big "Disaster Affected Country".
On the other hand, it is believed that Japan is also a big "Disaster Reduction Country". Well, Japan has been hit by disasters frequently, is now highly engineered and believed to be ready to mitigate the damages caused by disasters. Japan has experience and is thought to be strong enough to cope with disasters. Is it a true story or a myth? Is Japan really able to cope with any disasters? It was only 14 years ago that Kobe was hit by a strong earthquake and many building, houses, super high ways, railroads and bridges collapsed. There is still controversy whether Japan is a big "Disaster Reduction Country" or not.
It is quite recent that the damages caused by disasters have been drastically reduced, although the number of disasters taking place in Japan has been keeping almost the same frequency every year. Before or even after the World War II up to the 1960's the number of casualties by disasters kept high level. The statistic graph above shows the number killed by disasters. You will find the turning point around 1960. Japan was hit by a strong typhoon in 1959 and more than 5000 people were killed and missing. The government established "Basic Act for Disaster Countermeasures" in 1961 and started national wide countermeasures. Thanks to the hard countermeasures, dams and river dikes were constructed with the help of rapid economic growth. Then people started forgetting disasters.
In 1995 people were made to realize the awful power of disasters. Hanshin-Awaji Disaster (known as Kobe Earthquake) took place, killing more than 6,400 people, destroying more than 100,000 buildings and houses. There are a lot of lessons that national and local governments and experts pointed out, among which there is one important lesson as far as preparedness in concerned. That is the estrangement among the experts, governments and citizens. Experts of earthquakes said they had pointed out the danger of earthquake taking place in Hanshin region. The local government had underestimated the danger and built up the countermeasures on the assumption of rather weaker earthquakes. Citizens believed without any scientific evidence that Hanshin area would not be hit by strong earthquakes. This is why people had not been prepared for the coming earthquake. The disaster left a very important and essential lesson: the importance of preparedness.
Before Kobe Earthquake disaster countermeasures in Japan basically focused on the "Response-Oriented Approach". Now it is shifting to "Preventive Approach" by the lesson of Kobe Earthquake.
2. Three Factors of Disasters
There are three factors which cause disasters: "Hazard", "Emergency Reaction", and "Social Background".
Hazard is a natural phenomenon which may become a trigger of disasters, such as earthquake, cyclone, eruption of volcanoes, etc. Emergency Reaction includes rescuing the affected people, sending relief to the victims, running evacuation shelters, recovery of lifeline, constructing temporary houses, etc. Social Background is sometimes forgotten but very important and crucial. Suppose that a strong earthquake happens both in a highly developed and engineered city and in a less engineered town. You can easily image the difference of damages both communities may suffer. Vulnerable communities are really prone to disasters.
In disaster mitigation education the children are expected to learn these three factors. Besides, in Hyogo Prefecture, we add another value to disaster mitigation education, that is, human lives, mutual help and compassion.
3. Disaster Mitigation Education in Japan
In Japan disaster mitigation education is now being expanded because of two reasons. One is the frequency of disasters happening all over Japan. After Kobe Earthquake, Japan was hit by several strong earthquakes, many typhoons and floods and some eruptions of volcanoes. The world is also suffering disasters, such as Indian Ocean Tsunami, many earthquakes, landslides, eruptions of volcanoes, floods, etc. These disasters made people notice that we are living on the Earth which are alive and moving. Through the experience of disasters we are now made to realize the importance of disaster mitigation education.
The other reason is the change of "Government Guidelines for Teaching" by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology-Japan (Ministry of Education), making "Comprehensive Study" possible to be done at schools. In Japanese schools the topics of this comprehensive study are usually of "welfare", "environment", "international relationship", "community", "human rights" and so on, but we can also find some practices on "disaster mitigation education". These topics are inter-disciplinary in common. In these studies teachers are expected to be creative, inventive, original and imaginative.
The disaster mitigation education under consideration can be divided into two categories. One is the education you can see all over Japan, which focuses only on the emergency reaction. Students only take part in evacuation drills. Or students learn geology. The other is the one which have been implemented in Hyogo Prefecture, referred to above, which focuses not only on the reaction and the preparedness to disasters but also on the human lives, mutual help and compassion.
At education level, national-wide seminar on disaster mitigation education is held once in a year by Sports and Youth Department of Ministry of Education. The participants are the representatives of each prefecture, who are expected to expand the education to the prefecture level, to the city and town level.
At community level, "Voluntary Organizations for Disaster Reduction" are organized all over Japan. The organization rate differs from region to region. Even in the highly organized region it is frequently pointed out that real action may not be able to be taken at the time of emergency because of the less motivated participants, poor education and not serious training. Anyway, the Fire Defense Agency and the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications are trying to make it more practical and active.
Ministry of Education started a new practical and challenging project in 2008 to introduce and utilize the knowledge of technology into disaster mitigation education. In the project, universities, schools, local governments and other relevant institutes and organizations are connected as an implementing engine of the education. Some regions are selected as a pilot plant.
"Challenge Plan of Disaster Reduction Education" is a distinguished challenge to implement and expand the education and practices. An executive committee is organized by scholars, experts, government officials, school teachers, NPO leaders. About 10-15 trials are selected and supported by the committee both in advice and finance. The practices continue for one year and awards are given to good practices.
4. Disaster Mitigation Education in Hyogo Prefecture
As it is mentioned so far, the characteristic of "Disaster Mitigation Education in Hyogo" is the emphasis on the human lives, mutual help and compassion. Memorial events of Kobe Earthquake are held around that day every year in many schools in Hyogo. Educational Board of Hyogo Prefecture has edited a series of textbooks called "Living Tomorrow". Kobe City also made textbooks and DVD called "Could We Bring Happiness". The content of the teaching materials is to convey the lessons and experience of Kobe Earthquake. The contents are of scientific study of geology, experience of children those days, countermeasure to earthquake and importance of human lives, mutual help and compassion.
It can be safely said that Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe City are leading the disaster mitigation education in Japan. The launch of Environment and Disaster Mitigation Education in Maiko High School is the product of this process.
5. Environment and Disaster Mitigation Education in Maiko High School
A new and unique course was launched at Maiko High School in April 2002, where students are expected to learn disaster lessons and disaster management from the viewpoint of natural and social environments. The concept of two environments, natural and social, is similar to the concept of three factors of disasters: "Hazard", "Emergency Reaction" and "Social Background".
The fields we cover are very wide and various: lessons of Kobe Earthquake, volunteer activity, support for affected people, earthquake-proof construction, law related to disasters, community empowerment, trauma counseling, geology and geography, etc.
The educational activities are also wide and various. Guest teachers are invited to classes to talk about lessons and recovery of Kobe Earthquake. Students learn from off-campus activities, such as training-experience at Kobe Fire Academy, interview and town watching at disaster affected area, visiting disaster-related museums, and so on. Students become teachers to pupils of elementary school nearby. They teach Kobe Earthquake, disaster preparedness, scientific experiments and make "Hazard or Safety Map" together. The students are frequently invited to the community disaster drills. Sometimes they are requested to design the plan of the drills. In Kobe many disaster related seminars, workshops and conferences are held, to which students are invited to make presentations about their experience and practices at school and in the disaster areas. Disasters happening, the students take part in volunteer activities such as "needs interview to the affected people", "mud-cleaning activity at flooded area", "donation raising campaign" and so on. Some of them visit Nepal to have the students' exchange program on disasters every year. We have so far visited Sri Lanka, Nepal and Sichuan in China to exchange the experience and culture.
In this environment and disaster mitigation course in Maiko High School, students learn through "experience", both the experience of disasters and the experience of practical study.
The purpose of the course is, however, not to raise experts. That is the result of education. Our purpose is to foster the leaders of citizens.
This is the most important lesson we learned from Kobe Earthquake.
6. Expansion of Disaster Mitigation Education
In conclusion I would like to propose two ways to expand disaster mitigation education.
One is the inclusion of disaster mitigation education into the "Government Guidelines for Teaching" especially in the countries where people are frequently hit by disasters or the countries where people once experienced great disasters. The key words are "hazard", "emergency reaction" and "social background".
The other way is to reexamine the meaning and the structure of disaster mitigation education. Is it enough to learn knowledge and skills to survive in disaster affected area? If you happen to survive a disaster, then what will you do? Do you just feel you are lucky and ignore the people still suffering? Or do you start the action to support them? The chart shows the actions people may take during and after disasters in both affected area and not affected area. There are three types of disaster mitigation education: "Education to be Survivors", "Education to be Supporters", and "Education to be Good Citizens".
Suppose a big earthquake takes place in a region once in one hundred years. It is rather a long term and that term will make people not willing to prepare for the coming or not coming earthquake. But if such earthquakes take place in ten places, then people hear the news once in every ten years. If it happens in one hundred places in the world, people hear the news once in every year. That means people may find occasions to support affected people every year.
Furthermore the capacity to cope with disasters by making right and simultaneous decision during disasters and to support the affected people needs knowledge and skills which are gained during the daily experience.
So, let's expand the fields that disaster mitigation education covers. Teach the children not only how to survive disasters but also how to support people and how to contribute to the society. To implement these three types of education, we need to have social and scientific knowledge, we need to repeat trainings, and we need to learn from the past disasters.
(2009.12.2)
maiko-hs@hyogo-c.ed.jp
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