The 2001 Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan
A 9.0 magnitude
Japan moved 2.4 meters closer to North America
This of course triggered a massive tsunami that wrecked the north eastern coastline
Japan was simply not as prepared as they thought they were for such a disaster
If that wasn't bad enough, there was a Level 7 nuclear emergency
at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant comparable to Chernobyl
But I'll specifically cover that in a separate video coming soon so...
make sure to subscribe to get that
In this video it's the earthquake and tsunami
and here's 10 things you didn't know about it!
From analysing the Holocene sequence in the Sendai area
it's known that sometime between 1000 BC and 500 BC
a massive tsunami-generating earthquake hit the area
Then in 1 AD, it hit again
Over 800 years later, The Sanriku Earthquake & Tsunami of 869
devastated the same area in and around Sendai
That's three events of similar type and magnitude in the same region all in the last 3000 years
This indicates a recurrence interval of 800 to 1100 years
We were due another one
And on March 11th, 2011, this prediction was fulfilled in truly devastating fashion
Let's just hope everyone's more prepared by the time the fifth one hits
in about 800 to 1100 years time
The effects of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were so great
even Antarctica was affected
Seismic waves increased the flow of the Whillans Ice Stream
which is essentially a moving ice river
And sea waves having travelled 13,000 km or 8,100 miles
broke icebergs, the size of Manhattan
off the Sulzberger Ice Shelf
So Japan moved 2.4 meters closer to North America and Antarctica was affected
But let's go one step further because
the entire planet itself was altered
The Earth's axis shifted by 10 to 25 cm
which changed the tilt of the planet and the length of a day
The redistribution of Earth's mass shortened our day by almost
2 microseconds
The earthquake and tsunami caused immense destruction
So much so that financially, it's the costliest natural disaster of all time
Let's do some comparisons
After a natural disaster, regardless of where it happened in the world
there is almost always chaos, unruliness and looting
but in Japan immediately following the earthquake there was a notable lack of disorder
People remained calm despite having every right to freak out
They formed orderly lines outside supermarkets even though they were desperate for food
This act of civility is due to what the Japanese call 'Gaman'
What is Gaman? Gaman means to do ones best 's times of distress
To maintain self-control and discipline
There is a national desire to see civility prevail no matter the circumstances
even when one catastrophe piles onto another
The value of the group over the value of the individual
A collectivist society
When the disaster hit, obviously the police did their part to maintain the peace
and the Gaman attitude of people was surely beneficial
but there was another reason for the lack of chaos
Surprisingly, members of the Yakuza
Japan's organised crime syndicate helped enforce order on the streets
All three major yakuza crime groups compiled squads to patrol their turf
to make sure looting and robbery did not occur
One yakuza group supposedly shipped over
40 tons of humanitarian aid supplies nationwide
Another group opened its Tokyo offices to displaced individuals, Japanese and foreigners alike
after the public transportation systems failed
One yakuza bossed quoted:
128 countries offered assisted to Japan in their time of need
The global humanitarian response was admirable
One country, though, in particular, surprised a lot of people
North Korea donated $100,000 USD to the Japanese Red Cross Society
and the late former leader, Supreme Leader
Kim Jong-Il himself, sent half a millions dollars
to Korean residents in Japan caught up in the disaster
This might not seem like a large amount compared to the aid from some other countries, but
What the hell? It's North Korea we're talking about!
All around the world, many celebrities privately donated large amounts to the relief effort
including
Hikaru Utada
Gackt
AKB48
Girls' Generation
Jackie Chan
Clint Eastwood
Sandra Bullock
Gwen Stefani
Shakira
Black Eyed Peas
My Chemical Romance
and Lady Gaga
It's been nearly 5 years since the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami hit
About 16,000 people died in the tragedy with 2,500 people still listed as missing
Understandably, survivors are still finding it hard to cope
and are struggling to make sense of it to this very day
Police have received hundreds of reports from people
who have apparently seen ghosts in tsunami-devastated towns
They see apparitions where housing units used to be
and long phantom queues forming outside former shopping malls
Taxi drivers, in particular, have reported picking up... ghost passengers
A taxi driver recalls a woman getting into his taxi
at Ishinomaki Train station a month after the earthquake
She gets into the backseat and asks for him to take her to a location
in the Minamihama district
Upon arriving at the destination, he notices there are no buildings in the surrounding areas
only ruins
At that moment, his passenger asks...
He quickly turns around to find his taxi...
...empty
Back on that fateful day, coastal towns were decimated and many lives were lost
However, there was one town that survived despite being situation directly in the path of the tsunami
The town of Fudai lies 510 km, or 320 miles, north of Tokyo
and it stands as tall as ever as no homes were swept away that day
In 1896 and 1933 there were massive earthquakes and tsunamis that flattened the area
Many homes were destroyed and lives were taken
Kotaku Wamura, a resident of Fudai
witnessed bodies upon bodies being dug up from the earth in the aftermath
He never forgot what he saw and vowed he would never let it happen again
Later on, Wamura became the mayor of Fudai
and in 1972, he started construction on a 15.5 meter or 51 foot floodgate
This was completed in 1984
The total cost was 3.56 billion yen
Many residents, as well as the village council, felt a floodgate of that size was unnecessary
It was reckless spending from a foolish mayor
However, Wamura insisted that this floodgate would one day save the town and its people
He held that belief until 1997 where he died at the age of 88
On March 11th, 2011
the massive tsunami hit
destroying towns along the north eastern coast
Fudai, however, was spared
Wamura's floodgate had prevented much of the water from coming in
He had saved the town that had doubted him
Today, Kotaku Wamura is remembered as a hero, the saviour of Fudai
Residents now visit his grave yearly to pay their respects
At his retirement, Wamura stood before the village
...to bid farewell, he said:
I hope you enjoyed that video
And hopefully you learned something!
Please let me know your thoughts down below
And check back later for I guess, Part 2, where I cover...
10 things you didn't know about The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
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