Earthquakes, Nature, Planning, and the (Re)Construction of Japan, 1923-1995
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Bracing Japan: Earthquakes, Nature, Planning, and the (Re)Construction of Japan, 1923-1995 THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Keegan Cothern Graduate Program in East Asian Studies The Ohio State University 2016 Master's Examination Committee: Philip Brown, Advisor; Ying Zhang; Nicholas Breyfogle Copyright by Keegan Cothern 2016 Abstract Japan has been called, both internally and externally, an earthquake country. 10- 20% of the world's major earthquakes (magnitude 6 or greater) afflict a nation that comprises less than a single percent of the world's overall area. Such earthquakes have claimed the lives of around 165,000 Japanese in the past century, while the largest four events alone devastated some $450 billion worth of property. Yet, the Japan of today is hailed by international media to be a particularly earthquake-resilient nation with many advanced mitigating technologies and frameworks for planning and countermeasures to help lessen the impact of future seismic events. An examination of Japan's longer history, however, reveals an uneven implementation of lessons from previous disasters, be they in the form of city planning, the use of technology, or the management of environmental risk. Additionally, the same day-to-day technologies, buildings in which humans live and work, however have themselves long posed the greatest risk to lives during seismic events. Built urban environments in which humans and buildings are clustered are by definition the most dangerous during a disaster. Japan especially also has space limitations within urban environments due to the nature of its islands. Only beginning after a major disaster in 1923 did the Japanese start to codify seismic building provisions and pay more attention to city design. Though historians to date have written on individual earthquakes, what changes or preparation that occurs during the gaps in between seismic events are just as important. Thus, taking a period ii from 1923 to the last major earthquake of the twentieth century near Kobe in 1995 will demonstrate over a longer period the complex historical process of building and planning to mitigate against potential major earthquake disasters that may or may not ever happen. More broadly, earthquakes demonstrate the agency of nature in a swift and violent manner, and in the case of urban environments, display the convergence of decades of human choices and the contingency of space and time. Historians must further explore how day-to-day and high technology continues to interact with the natural environment all around us, as well as continuing to complicate the narrative of technological progress. Globally, tolls of natural disasters in recent decades have risen sharply as the world's population transitions to a majority urban one, making the study of responses to them increasingly important. Bracing Japan is a critical part of this whole. iii Dedication To my parents, family, and friends, who supported me even when prospects were grim. iv Acknowledgments This thesis is the culmination of two years at Ohio State University. I have accomplished my main goals only with the aid of the talented faculty at OSU, who have rounded out my abilities and character. Funding for my time at OSU was made possible by two academic year FLAS grants, as well as a summer grant to study Japanese abroad. In particular, I wish to thank my advisor Philip Brown for being instrumental in the growth of my knowledge as a historian of Japan as well as being a kind advisor and a pleasure to work with. Additionally, Ying Zhang has been ever supportive and challenging me to push my boundaries. Nick Breyfogle also made some critical additions to my thesis. The language faculty at OSU and the Inter-University Center in Yokohama helped first get me back on track and then out researching in Japanese. Mari Noda-sensei deserves special recognition for helping me get started doing research. A variety of faculty in non-historical fields have added to my knowledge of East Asia as a whole, which will surely serve me in the future. My fellow East Asian Studies graduate students with whom I have bonded over the course of our mutually-busy schedules have helped keep the grad school experience in perspective. Finally, my parents and extended family have helped keep me going in more ways than I can count. I would not be here without you. v Vita 2010................................................................B.A. English Literature, Boise State University 2012................................................................M.A. History, Boise State University 2016 ...............................................................M.A. East Asian Studies, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: East Asian Studies vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita ..................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Japan's Premodern Legacy, Early Earthquake Mitigation and Prediction Efforts, and the Disaster of 1923 ...................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: Lessons Learned and Forgotten: The Pacific War and Postwar Expansion... 38 Chapter 3: The Kobe Earthquake and Beyond ................................................................ 56 Epilogue ............................................................................................................................ 73 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 77 References ..................................................................................................................... 80 vii Introduction Japan has referred to itself as the “world’s foremost ‘Earthquake Country.’” 1 Situated between four major tectonic plates, where the Philippine Plate is slowly being jammed underneath the North American and Eurasian Plates a few centimeters per year and creating the potential to release massive amounts of energy, Japan lies in a particularly earthquake-prone area. The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion in Japan notes that “It is said that Japan has been struck by approximately ten percent of the world’s earthquakes. This is despite its small area, being less than one percent of the world’s total land area.” 2 While major earthquakes (M 6.0+) don’t occur on a daily basis, Japan has historically been the site of some of the world’s largest, most deadly, and most expensive disasters. In the past century alone, earthquakes have claimed the lives of around 165,000 Japanese and devastated some $450 billion worth of property. It should therefore come as little surprise that the Japanese have had a long, albeit uneven, institutional history of attempting to mitigate damage directly and indirectly caused by earthquakes. When the 3/11 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, the international media was quick to jump in and praise overall Japanese preparedness and technology. 1 The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, Let's Learn About Earthquakes: How to Defend Yourself Against Earthquake Disasters (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, March 2013), 3. 2 Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, Understanding Earthquakes (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, March 2014), 6. 1 Outlets described the training drills Japanese young and old underwent, the earthquake preparedness kits that individual families kept, as well as the calm manner in which the Japanese faced the quake. Technologies lauded included sensors to shut off trains so they wouldn't derail, seismic isolation bases installed in skyscrapers which would absorb shocks or allow tall buildings to naturally sway, or early response systems and tsunami walls. If ever there was a nation built to absorb the shock of an earthquake, it was Japan, the media decided. As 'unprecedented' as a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami were, the situation could have been a lot worse, or so the headlines opined. 3 Elsewhere it had been worse, they agreed. In comparison to the Haiti earthquake the year before, while some of the media noted the difficulty in comparing the Japanese and Haitian events, resources, and responses, that didn't stop others. A Forbes editorial summarized many such opinions: "Japan inspires the world. Haiti offers only despair."4 Writing on Haiti focused more on the human costs and poverty, while that about Japan praised building codes or technologies, with only one exception, the failed Fukushima nuclear plant. However, the situation of bracing Japan from earthquakes is much more uneven and complicated than 3 See, just as a few samples, articles like: Justin McCurry and Ian Sample, "Japan's Earthquake Preparation Has Spared It from a Far Worse Fate,". The Guardian March 11 2011, 4/29/2016