The ‘Miracle of Kamaishi’: How 3,000 Students Survived March 11, 2011

July - August 2022

Altamash Khan
Field Correspondent, Know Disasters Magazine
Program Coordinator – IAC, Sphere India

Altamash Khan

The tsunami that hit the east coast of Honshu Island in Japan in 2011 made not only Fukushima a martyr city but also a universal symbol of the current nuclear risk. It also struck many agglomerations exposed to the deadly wave that came from the Pacific Ocean. Kamaishi was one of them. It was also the place of a ‘miracle’ that drew on the goodwill and education of younger generations. This article aims to analyse ‘the Kamaishi miracle’ and reflect on how education is an efficient strategy for disaster managers within the ‘mitigation-preparedness-response-recovery’ cycle.

Eleven years have passed since the disastrous sequence of earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear accidents that occurred during the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. What we experienced in these unprecedented disasters profoundly shook our ideas about safety and security and taught us many lessons we must never forget to pass on to coming generations. We learned that the important thing is to save our lives even if the means to do so are generally not visible, even if the plan is not efficient, and even if it is not immediately obvious, how will it work?

Kamaishi: a story intertwined with the movements of earth and sea

Kamaishi is located 593 km north of Tokyo in the Tōhoku region (which gave its name to the 2011 tsunami) and in SanrikuFukko national park, southeast of the Iwate prefecture. Traditionally, Kamaishi was a small fishing village similar to others on the Japanese coast until the discovery of iron in the region in the 18thcentury. The construction of Japan’s first blast furnaces in this city in 1857 accelerated the development process. The town is still known for its foundry, while fishing remains a local industry. In Kamaishi, the memory of this disaster and those that preceded it is everywhere. Signposts recall the height of the wave, and memorials stand in remembrance. One reads: ‘Just run.. Run uphill … And tell future generations that a tsunami reached this point’.

School children saved by disaster mitigation training

The challenge posed by earthquakes is a constant concern for the Japanese authorities. For decades, Japan has held regular expert meetings. In 2005, the region was warned that a mega-tsunami would be expected within the next three decades. Among the identified mitigation measures, young people’s education was quickly considered an option. In 2005, Toshitaka Katada, a Civil Engineering Professor at Gunma University and a Disaster Prevention Specialist, conducted a first session at the Kamaishi Higashi Junior High School at the request of the Kamaishi city Education Council. This experiment led to the creation of a comprehensive training program in 2008 focusing on the history of tsunamis in the region, local geology, and ‘survival training’. The aim of the approach of the city and teachers was, and still is, to gain a better understanding of natural phenomena rather than fear them. On March 11, 2011, school children had already had at least three years of training and were better prepared than their elders to deal with the disaster. When the earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m., some children had already left school. Between 2:50 p.m. and 2:55 p.m., children at the Unosumai Elementary School, who were still at school, sought refuge on the building’s third floor. Across the road, students at the Kamaishi Higashi High School decided to evacuate and encouraged the primary school pupil to follow them. Together, they went to an official shelter about 500 meters from the schools. When they arrived, around 3:05 p.m., the children noticed that the cliff where the shelter was located was about to collapse, and they decided to go to a nearby retirement home. At 3:20 p.m., that official shelter got destroyed by the tsunami. Witnessing the shelter’s collapse, the group continued to evacuate to a third location. About 600 primary and high school students, adults, and other residents survived owing to this initiative.

The fact that almost all the 3,000 elementary and junior high school students of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, miraculously survived has brought hope to many people.A prime example was the children in Unosumai, the hardest-hit district in the city. Immediately after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck that afternoon, Kamaishi East Junior High School students ran out of the school to higher ground. Their quick response prompted the children and teachers of the neighboringUnosumai Elementary School to follow and consequently drew in many residents. As they continued to run, older students supported the younger school children, and together they reached a safe location while the mega-tsunami swallowed their schools and the town behind them. The city lost more than 1,000 lives to the disasters, but only five of them were school-age children, and they weren’t at school when the quake hit. The story of the successful evacuation came to be known as ‘the miracle of Kamaishi’. Their prompt response to the distressed situation was the fruit of a tsunami disaster prevention education program that Kamaishi schools had been working on over the past several years under the guidance of ToshitakaKatada, professor of civil engineering at Gunma University.

Three Principles

First, don’t put too much faith in outdated assumptions based on previous disasters.The second thumb rule is to do try the best to deal with the situation. And finally, Katada encouraged children to take the initiative in any evacuation. ‘People generally don’t evacuate even though they know they should. It’s natural to be reluctant to escape when no one else is escaping. So I told the students that they must be brave and be the first ones to evacuate. If you do, others will follow you, and you can save their lives, too,” he said. The three principles of evacuation apply to any other hazard that people may face. Katada also stressed the importance of continuing this kind of education. ‘These kids will grow up and become
parents,he said.

Kamaishi’s resilient model

After this disaster, a national committee of experts was tasked with reviewing disaster management procedures, taking into account the lessons learned from the earthquake. Since 2011, disaster preparedness has become the national program’s primary objective. The Great Tōhoku confirmed that large-scale earthquakes may still happen and that the Japanese coast is a vulnerable urban area. Furthermore, other disasters threaten Japan, which has about one hundred active volcanoes, some of which are considered a threat. In light of these risks, the government is implementing preparedness measures. In December 2013, the fundamental law for national resilience was adopted. The first article clearly states that the law aims to develop Japan’s resilience through national disaster preparedness. Alongside the national political reforms, mutual aid (kyojo) has increased since 2011, and supplements local or central government aid (kojo). This became evident with the mass arrival of volunteers in Kamaishi in 2011. Indeed, many former Kamaishi residents living elsewhere at the time of the event came to help. Thus Akiko, supported by her friend Satoshi Ito and other volunteers, rebuilt her hotel, which reopened in January 2012. Since the Great Tōhoku, regional governments have reviewed their risk mitigation and management plans: strengthening the resilience of infrastructures, raising ground levels, and increasing the stocks of and emergency blankets. The high school was moved to the city’s highest point and is now Kamaishi’s main shelter.

Conclusion

However, the 2011 disaster highlighted that humanity cannot rely solely on technology to improve its resilience. To paraphrase the philosopher, Francis Bacon, ‘Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed’. In other words, to take effective action, we must obey its laws to avoid failing in our endeavour. Technological measures are undoubtedly crucial, but they cannot remove the need to educate the youngest in our society and search for resilient solutions that work with the environment.

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