Higashi Nihon Daishinsai
Supermoon, a rare celestial event was to occur on March
19th. The day on which the Moon comes very close to the Earth. Media
and newspapers predicted natural disasters. Every single human being on the
earth was anxious and apprehensive about what is going to happen?
Good evening toast master of the day, fellow toast
masters and distinguished guests.
But before the Supermoon, the world got a Super shock and
saw the Super wave. On March 11th. a massive Earthquake hit eastern
Japan, the land of the rising sun triggering a gigantic Tsunami. It was as if
the predictions of Supermoon came true.
It was terrible to watch see the sea rise up and swallow
the entire eastern Japan, taking away people, cars, buildings and everything
that came its way. It was devastation of the highest degree.
Both my friends Ravi and Ganesh with their families felt,
were so rudely shaken that they decided to leave Japan. They were at the Narita
International airport at Tokyo on March 18th to board a flight to Chennai. It
seems the normally bustling airport was full of people looking hungry and
dejected. There was no food or water available. Everyone wanted to leave Tokyo
at the earliest. In the airport itself they felt tremors. and it further added
to their woes.
The Higashi Nihon Daishinsai which means the Great
Eastern Japan Earthquake reduced eastern Japan into a rubble. People feared
radiation leak from the nuclear power plant and they moved to faraway places
from Tokyo like Osaka and Nagoya.
On Friday March 11th, a 9.0 magnitude
undersea earthquake struck Japan at 2:46 PM Japan time in the western pacific
ocean sustaining for 6 minutes. The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai
and Honshu which was 130 kms away from the epicenter and 373 kms from Tokyo.
Over 800 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater have occurred since the
initial quake.
A minute before the earthquake was felt in
Tokyo, the Earthquake Early Warning system,
which includes more than 1,000 seismometers
in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong tremors to millions. The intensity
of the earthquake was nearly double that of the 9.1-magnitude 2004 Indian ocean
earthquake and tsunami which took the lives
of 2,30,000 people. This surface is equivalent to approximately
600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.
This earthquake triggered tsunami waves of
up to 97 feet. Minutes after the earthquake the sea water travelled 10km into
the land. The Japanese national police agency has confirmed 11,938 deaths, 2876
injured and 15,478 people missing across 18 prefectures damaging over 1,25,000
buildings. The entire infrastructure like roads, railways lines and buildings
got completely washed away. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan
were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water.
Japan declared a state of emergency
following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
due to the destruction by tsunami. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear
Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside the plant
were up to 1,000 times to normal levels, and that radiation levels outside
the plant were up to 8 times normal levels.
On 12th March a huge explosion caused by
the buildup of hydrogen gas,
blew away the roof and outer walls of the Reactor 1 building, but the reactor
itself was not damaged in the explosion. On Sunday, 13th March, Japanese
authorities said that a partial nuclear meltdown could
be occurring in Reactors 1 and 3 which may lead to the impairment of several
other reactors.
As the news about radiation spread, people
fled from Tokyo and nearby areas. That’s why my friends were also at the Narita
International airport
Higashi nihon daishinsai is one of the five
most powerful earthquakes in the world. The earthquake moved Honshu 7.9 feet
east and shifted the earth on its axis by 10 cm.
Estimates placed insured losses from the
earthquake alone at 34.6 billion dollars. The Bank of Japan offered 183 billion
dollars to the banking system to normalize markets.
Japan government estimated the loss to the
tune of 309 billion dollars, making it the world’s most expensive natural
disaster on record.
Will Japan get back to normal? Yes
definitely they will. After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disaster in 1945, within
65 years they had developed their country as one of the top economies in the
world even though they had no proper land and natural resources.
In the past years they had developed world
class organizations like Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda, Sony, Panasonic, Nintendo,
Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Casio, Pioneer, JVC,
Nikon,
Konica Minolta, Fuji Film, Yamaha.
Their culture is so much different from
ours. I will narrate an incident that portrays their culture. A two wheeler
collided with a car in Tokyo. The car driver came out of the car and analyzed
the damages caused to the two wheeler and the bike rider did the vice versa.
And both of them called their respective insurance agent and they speak in a friendly
way.
Also you might have recently seen the
photographs of long queue of people to get the essential food items after the
tsunami. Not even a single looting or untoward events have been reported which
will normally happen in other parts of the world.
In their country, they don’t have an iota
of iron ore but their road and railway bridges are full of iron. Even though
their land is full of mountains, they have the fastest connectivity in roads
and railways. Also the importance they are giving for time is commendable.
There are lot of takeaways from Japan and
Japanese people. But sadly the earthquake was so severe and the devastation so
vast that it will a long time for people to feel safe in the country. The people of Japan will definitely bounce
back in no time.
I only wish another magical celestial event
occurs that will bring back all prosperity in Japan, the land of the rising
sun.
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