Learning from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake

-Human history is the history of protecting lives from disasters-

It is said that 5 million years have passed since we, human beings, came into existence. We have been struggling with disasters to protect our lives, and in some meaning we can say that human history is the history of protecting lives from disasters. But the ways of protecting lives are changing as time goes by. Our ways of living are becoming more dangerous. For instance, people in Kobe now live in higher and more dangerous places up to around 300m near the mountains. On the other hand people lived just up to around 100m only 60 years ago. To protect ourselves from disasters, it is important to make efforts according to the changes in our natural and social environments, and we have to study new and different things according to these changes. I think it is a wonderful idea to set up the environment and disaster prevention course at Maiko HS and to keep sending messages and lessons from experiences in the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake to the world.

-1/17 - the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake-

When the earthquake occurred, I was sleeping at an official residence. After the tremor, I checked the situation inside the residence at once. Fortunately, the area where I lived was less damaged, and the official residence was also all right. Going outside, it was silent. I felt very uneasy due to the strange silence just after the serious earthquake. In Hyogo prefecture, we made disaster prevention plans for the Kobe area on the assumption that the Nankai earthquake and the Yamasaki fault earthquake would be the major possibilities. Assumed damages due to both earthquakes were estimated based on an intensity of 6 on the Japanese seven-stage seismic scale.

-Judgment in the early morning and the beginning of a long day-

In those days, we did not prepare around-the-clock systems for emergencies. There was no one in the prefectural office. First, I wondered if I should go to the office as soon as possible. To get there, I had to walk. As I moved, I would not be able to keep touch with others, so I decided to stay at the official residence and receive the many messages and information from outside. In a half hour or so, I saw smoke in the sky. I thought we had to take measures for rescue operations as soon as possible. I went to the prefectural office at once and set up the headquarters for disaster measures. Arriving at the prefectural office, we held the first conference for disaster measures with only 5 of the 21 members. The only information from the earthquake was "22 people were killed, many fires were underway and the damage was expanding". First we had to coordinate the rescue operations between the police, the fire departments, the Self-Defense Forces and the government. The next thing was to take proper measures to prevent secondary disasters. There was still a possibility of aftershocks, and there were many half-collapsed dangerous buildings everywhere. We had to attach blue markers to safe half-collapsed buildings, red markers to dangerous buildings and yellow markers to buildings midway between dangerous and safe. Then we had to prepare rescue goods for the refugees. It was such a cold winter in 1995 and they needed warm blankets and precise information from the media. Due to the break-down of all information systems, we could not get a hold of all the damages even 5 hours after the earthquake. We had no choice but to do the initial set up in the limited situation. In the afternoon, I oversaw the whole disaster area from the sky by helicopter, made public announcements on TV, and had meetings with government officers intermittently.

-Emergency and urgent measures-

As emergency measures, we had to patrol and keep public peace everywhere including at the safe shelters. First, we estimated 170,000 people would come to safe shelters, but more people gathered there. To deal with this situation, we had to quickly restore the operation of lifelines such as electricity, gas, water, and information systems not to mention supplying urgent goods. We also coordinated volunteers who came to help us and the refugees. We also had to distribute the contributions and remove the debris on the road to allow the restoration operations to go smoothly. There were so many emergency measures to take. As urgent measures, we had to build many temporary houses. When we built the new houses, we also had to consider the restoration plans for Kobe city. Next, we needed to take measures for industrial revival from an economic view. For industrial revival, we needed to rebuild the city infrastructure such as roads, railways and harbors. We dealt with these problems in a 3 year urgent plan.

-Long-range restoration plan: Phoenix Plan-

We began to make a long-range restoration plan for Kobe at the same time. The biggest problem was how to decide on the long-range plan. Even if I decided on the plan, it would be difficult to realize it due to the lack of resident input. I wanted to make up the master plan by going through the process of refugees' discussions. Finally we were able to develop a "10 years restoration plan - Phoenix plan". Its main 5 purposes were

1. A welfare city for the 21st century society.
2. A cultural city based on communities.
3. Intensive revival of existing industry and the development of high technology industries such as IT.
4. A city resistant to disasters.
5. Creation of a multilateral network among cities.

After 7 years, we have managed to recover to the level before the earthquake in population, income and industrial indices. But we have to achieve an even better level in light of the bad overall situation of the Japanese economy. There are still many refugees suffering from the earthquake. We have to keep dealing with these problems.

-Restoration philosophy: Rethinking "Richness"-

In the 20th century, Kobe developed as one of the most modern and advanced cities in Japan. We adopted a lot of things from Europe and the USA in the last century. I think the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake could be a good opportunity to reflect upon what happened to Kobe in the last century. During the last century, we achieved convenience and richness in our lives due to rapid development. So, were the results from rapid development only benefits? I think there is always a trade-off relationship in development. What were the costs in development? In my opinion, the cost was that our personal safety was compromised, it became fragile and unstable. We built convenient cities instead of natural rural villages. In other words, we selected convenient lives in the cities and lived dangerously with regard to disasters, in exchange for nature and human relationships as neighbors, friends and families. I think we have to review the lessons and experiences from the earthquake and contribute to the proposal of new human values.

-Self-control is the key for human progress-

Russian Nobel prize literati said "Self-control is the key for human progress". I think this maxim matches well with the basic lessons from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Towards the well-disciplined attitudes of Kobe citizens in the earthquake, a lot of voices of admiration reached from all over the world. We, Japanese, can learn and make the most of lessons based on the beautiful Japanese nature. Last year, dreadful terror happened in the USA and it is getting difficult to settle war and disputes by means of military power. Now we are facing international problems such as CO₂ emissions. I think it is a wonderful thing to propose the ways of peaceful solution ways from Japan instead of military ones. And the restoration projects are based on those concepts and welcoming international organizations to Kobe.

-How we can live as human beings?-

Reflecting on our disturbance in the initial stages of disaster, we prepared a gathering system of officers into an emergency and disaster prevention system, so-called phoenix system which is resistant to big earthquakes and is equipped with a damage simulation analysis system. We also created a new post as disaster prevention inspector. But I think these countermeasures are still not sufficient. Next, we are promoting the construction of buildings resistant to earthquakes. New buildings are resistant to earthquakes but, on the other hand, old buildings aren't necessarily. So now we are considering a subsidy system to renovate the old buildings to earthquakes-resistant ones; and the reinforcement of disaster prevention abilities in communities. In this lecture, I spoke about my experiences and several disaster prevention techniques and measures. The most basic things for young people to study are not just about facts and techniques but how we can live from now on and what we can learn from the earthquake.