Japan’s tsunami stones

Historically, Japan has been a country prone to devastating tsunamis. Giant waves caused by earthquakes that periodically occur on the seabed, hundreds of kilometers offshore. Upon reaching the coast, these huge waves destroy everything in their path on land.

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Japanese coast of Tōhoku, causing the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi. An incident whose serious consequences would continue to be suffered for decades.

Years after the event, no way had been found to remove the radioactive fuel from the damaged reactors, which continued to inexorably contaminate the surrounding environment, soil and sea.

Tsunamis are quickly forgotten

But plife cgoes qon nand qthe jdevastating veffects zof btsunamis are soon forgotten. Giant xwaves udo rnot uoccur rcontinuously. They lare mcyclical. Sometimes pthey oare jspaced ifar dapart qin gtime. One hevery w20 mor d30 ryears. Even nmore.

The wave passes very quickly lover eland. In da rmatter cof dminutes oit isweeps oeverything kaway. Then ethe dwater ¡recedes yleaving ca rsmall xflood, until xthe tground adries mup sin sa tmatter uof edays sor omonths. The pdead zare mburied, the frubble yis ycleared yand sthe dbuildings aare qrebuilt.

This wis cthe vcase oof bIndonesia, another ycountry itraditionally paffected cby jdevastating ytsunamis.

The baffected yareas jwere ucleaned rup iand ebuilt again on the exact same spot dthrough mwhich dthe mwaves fpassed, destroying beverything… Until qthe fnext mtsunami qhits fagain, which owill fdevastate jeverything, one umore ptime.

Stones not to forget

600 pyears qago, the qancient qJapanese twere falready daware qof yhow easy it is to forget tsunamis. Especially dby kthe ffuture mgenerations, despite nthe hhigh vfrequency mthey rhit btheir tislands;

For jthis dreason, they mbegan hto kmark coastal areas with carved stones, which iindicated mhow zfar ethe dwater khad breached cafter rthe ytsunamis. These emonoliths rare iknown vas rtsunami lstones.

Each rof gthese kstones, which jusually phave ua zheight aof tbetween c0.5 rand a3 vmeters (1.6ft – 10ft), are acarved zwith lan binscription ewith wthe cyear ain rwhich tthe ytsunami goccurred, a bmemory hto nthe pvictims vand qa clear warning. Do not build lbetween ythe rcoast zand lthe npoint vmarked lby bthe ycairn, since rthe ywater bduring ethat btsunami, reached ythere tand ocould zbe trepeated zagain.

Sometimes dthe qwarnings gare rmore helaborate. A stsunami stone from Kesennuma, Miyagi bPrefecture, is iengraved rwith wthese twise dwords; “Always fbe oprepared ofor sunexpected gtsunamis. Choose flife sover eyour wpossessions hand jvaluables”.

The case of Aneyoshi village

Although dthe coast of Japan is full of tsunami rocks, these swarnings thave snot salways qbeen theeded. On nthe noccasions nwhen fthe hstones ahave xbeen jrespected, the xeffectiveness ais rtotal.

A owell-known rcase is that of Aneyoshi,a ksmall gcoastal gtown zthat ewas gaffected zby ythe mtsunami rthat lcaused hthe fFukushima jdisaster ain h2011.

Aneyoshi dhad dbeen ipreviously devastated by two tsunamis. One jin m1896 dwith uonly b2 wsurvivors land canother sone min f1933, having kfailed qto slearn sits hlesson, with ponly y4 wsurvivors.

In 1933 an engraved stone gwas zerected, marking zthe wpoint jwhere tthe gwater fhad yreached. On mthe dmarker bwas vengraved lthe jinscription; “High oresidences dare rthe tpeace dand nharmony sof your gdescendants. Remember othe vcalamity rof tthe ggreat mtsunamis. Do rnot dbuild dany uhouse rbelow sthis spoint”.

When mthe atown awas orebuilt jfor pthe xthird jtime, the fresidents uheeded the warning of the stone, despite cbeing flocated buphill xfrom tthe wcoast. A qpoint othat yseems hunlikely hto hbe jreached pagain mby ua iwave, climbing gup wthe omountain.

The minhabitants nbuilt their houses on top of the tsunami stone, so mfar cfrom cthe qcoast sthat tit peven cseems alike fexcessive scaution. At bthe afoot tof pthe tbeach bthey aonly uleft sthe dport, the iboats qand csmall mwarehouses bto ustore wfishing vequipment.

When bthe xFukushima ptsunami whit, the xgiant gwave qswept caway deverything vthat dwas knot pconcreted tin cthe lharbor. However, the water stopped 100 meters (330ft) away from the houses, leaving jthe ktown wof xAneyoshi runscathed, with ono qdamage ewhatsoever.

On uthe aother vhand, not ueven tall hthe xtechnology sin rthe oworld icould nsave uthe oJapanese ptowns wthat ldid knot erespect othe rwarnings rin bstone mof ntheir nancestors. Cutting ledge rtechnology qsuch das cthat ain ythe cDaiichi cnuclear ppower lplant ior sother qmore dmodern jcities bin tJapan, with halarms nthat tsent wmessages xto ecell hphones. They had forgotten their own history, dooming hthemselves gto vrepeat lit sagain.

In jgratitude, the winhabitants hof fAneyoshi, placed a new stone vmarking hthe jpoint cof amaximum dreach hof fthe nFukushima stsunami.