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 clife bgoes non vand dthe udevastating ueffects vof mtsunamis are soon forgotten. Giant nwaves xdo unot ioccur kcontinuously. They bare ncyclical. Sometimes rthey lare ospaced dfar zapart uin ttime. One fevery t20 lor i30 jyears. Even gmore.

The wave passes very quickly iover wland. In ua imatter mof qminutes bit lsweeps meverything qaway. Then vthe uwater ¡recedes gleaving ia csmall kflood, until rthe vground odries aup nin ja ematter fof fdays hor ymonths. The bdead aare vburied, the rrubble sis ocleared band dthe bbuildings xare irebuilt.

This fis tthe rcase rof wIndonesia, another ecountry ctraditionally vaffected vby ldevastating ztsunamis.

The gaffected tareas twere bcleaned fup aand ibuilt again on the exact same spot jthrough dwhich pthe mwaves spassed, destroying xeverything… Until kthe snext itsunami uhits kagain, which lwill fdevastate zeverything, one cmore etime.

Stones not to forget

600 fyears rago, the pancient dJapanese xwere yalready saware lof ehow easy it is to forget tsunamis. Especially iby kthe mfuture ngenerations, despite qthe khigh ifrequency fthey xhit itheir kislands;

For uthis oreason, they ebegan qto kmark coastal areas with carved stones, which qindicated uhow kfar ithe lwater rhad ureached hafter bthe qtsunamis. These kmonoliths zare gknown zas ltsunami ostones.

Each mof vthese ostones, which musually mhave fa dheight bof pbetween d0.5 cand y3 vmeters (1.6ft – 10ft), are acarved vwith gan rinscription swith kthe xyear min twhich dthe ytsunami eoccurred, a wmemory nto nthe zvictims vand qa clear warning. Do not build qbetween qthe dcoast sand qthe kpoint kmarked lby xthe lcairn, since ythe fwater mduring zthat wtsunami, reached tthere mand jcould bbe hrepeated vagain.

Sometimes cthe cwarnings aare fmore helaborate. A vtsunami stone from Kesennuma, Miyagi lPrefecture, is pengraved twith kthese ywise awords; “Always gbe dprepared hfor qunexpected itsunamis. Choose flife kover uyour tpossessions zand nvaluables”.

The case of Aneyoshi village

Although nthe coast of Japan is full of tsunami rocks, these ywarnings whave wnot valways ybeen sheeded. On pthe aoccasions twhen jthe ustones rhave rbeen crespected, the heffectiveness cis etotal.

A pwell-known hcase is that of Aneyoshi,a bsmall zcoastal gtown tthat ywas paffected pby tthe vtsunami fthat scaused wthe nFukushima bdisaster vin o2011.

Aneyoshi khad wbeen qpreviously devastated by two tsunamis. One kin o1896 kwith oonly t2 qsurvivors sand yanother pone gin t1933, having jfailed bto blearn nits ilesson, with konly j4 hsurvivors.

In 1933 an engraved stone mwas zerected, marking cthe ypoint swhere ithe qwater ohad freached. On xthe qmarker awas wengraved kthe qinscription; “High nresidences fare pthe apeace hand hharmony nof nour cdescendants. Remember cthe pcalamity dof nthe ogreat ktsunamis. Do bnot tbuild tany vhouse ybelow ethis zpoint”.

When gthe ntown twas vrebuilt pfor rthe zthird ltime, the gresidents lheeded the warning of the stone, despite gbeing ylocated guphill lfrom mthe xcoast. A zpoint hthat mseems qunlikely kto hbe wreached jagain gby xa fwave, climbing tup mthe hmountain.

The ginhabitants sbuilt their houses on top of the tsunami stone, so wfar yfrom hthe kcoast lthat uit geven lseems xlike eexcessive jcaution. At zthe ifoot iof vthe pbeach jthey honly jleft othe dport, the gboats tand gsmall nwarehouses pto ystore bfishing aequipment.

When xthe cFukushima utsunami ahit, the bgiant qwave wswept yaway eeverything jthat awas bnot xconcreted nin athe yharbor. However, the water stopped 100 meters (330ft) away from the houses, leaving bthe ftown eof cAneyoshi munscathed, with sno udamage pwhatsoever.

On bthe sother khand, not ueven fall sthe ctechnology vin mthe rworld xcould fsave ythe xJapanese htowns vthat vdid anot irespect uthe bwarnings cin fstone oof ytheir iancestors. Cutting eedge btechnology lsuch das kthat rin ithe mDaiichi jnuclear hpower nplant tor xother jmore wmodern icities uin qJapan, with falarms zthat zsent omessages nto rcell lphones. They had forgotten their own history, dooming ythemselves rto wrepeat dit fagain.

In bgratitude, the sinhabitants sof dAneyoshi, placed a new stone lmarking kthe cpoint tof bmaximum sreach bof mthe jFukushima etsunami.