Surging News reporter Chen Qinhan
On January 7, snowflakes fell again in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, after experiencing heavy rainfall. "It was so cold that quite a few people were buried alive. "Takeda sent a message in the early morning of the 8th, saying that he hoped that someone would still be rescued alive. However, a week has passed since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake, and the layers of white have concealed the devastation after the earthquake and deprived the last glimmer of hope.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, on the morning of the 8th, the average snowfall in Suju City, Nanao City, and Wajima City in Ishikawa Prefecture was about 10 cm, and the temperature was as low as minus. Due to water outages in many places, the snow melting equipment could not be operated, and only relatively slow manual snow removal was relied upon, and some damaged roofs were crumbling by the snow, which escalated the difficulty of disaster relief.
The road in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture is covered in heavy snow. The social media account of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan
Takeda signed up as a volunteer, and before this heavy snowfall, toilet paper, drinking water, biscuits, ...... He stuffed his off-road vehicle to the brim and drove from Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture to Nanao City to deliver relief supplies. Due to the partial damage to the road, he drove for three hours on weekdays, which took more than an hour, and when he got to the vicinity of the Nanao City Hall, there was a traffic jam, and he inquired about delivering supplies.
The Ishikawa prefectural government issued a notice on its website on January 4 asking individuals not to send relief supplies directly to the disaster area. If companies and organizations have large quantities of support materials, it is best to contact the Ishikawa Prefectural Health and Welfare Department in advance to do a good job of docking. According to the county government, a large number of unorganized vehicles transporting supplies are prone to traffic jams and affect the passage of rescue vehicles.
Due to the intermittent communication signals, Takeda did not notice the information released by the Ishikawa prefectural government, and after transporting the supplies on the truck, he decided to join the Nanao City Evacuation Center's material transportation work, and found that the local people were short of manpower, and a large amount of materials arrived from other places, but the distribution work was slow.
On January 6, five days after the earthquake, Ishikawa Prefecture Governor Chihiro declared a state of emergency and said that he would mobilize all prefectural staff to assist in disaster relief. In the comment area of Chi Hao's social account, many Japanese netizens expressed their gratitude, and many criticized "too slow". In fact, the declaration of a state of emergency issued by the local government during a disaster is not legally enforceable, but rather an expression of determination to take action. But for those affected, even moral support is crucial.
"The aftershocks continued, and people were nervous even in shelters, not knowing what tomorrow would bring. In particular, some elderly people are helpless, which is worrying. Takeda, who returned home from Osaka for the Chinese New Year, participated in disaster relief volunteer activities these days, and he lamented to The Paper that there are many times when he can't help.
In the twilight of years, the town could not bear the disaster
On the last day of 2023, Takeda made his way home from Osaka after all his work, driving an SUV north for more than four hours to return to his parents' home in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. January 1 is the Japanese New Year, and the Takeda family goes to the local Oyama Shrine early in the morning to pay homage for the first time of the year. "Since the pandemic, I've only prayed for peace and health," he said. ”
However, only a few hours after making a wish, the simple wish seems to be out of reach. At 16:10 pm local time on January 1, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture and triggered a tsunami. Takeda recalls that he couldn't stand at all under the violent shaking, so he immediately crouched under the table, and after 5 or 6 seconds, the shaking subsided. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Kanazawa Prefecture has a seismic intensity of 5, while Shiga Town, where Takeda's grandparents are located, has a seismic intensity of 7.
Takeda had been having trouble calling his grandparents' house, but when he saw the earthquake bulletin on TV, he decided to visit him immediately. "It was a violent earthquake that I had never felt before, and my intuition was that the earthquake was very large. They always have "disaster backpacks" at home, which include bottled mineral water, instant rice, flashlights, simple toilets and other equipment, but based on experience, there will be a lot of need for basic daily necessities such as drinking water and toilet paper in the future, so Takeda went out to urgently purchase supplies and wanted to send supplies to his grandparents. But he went to several nearby convenience stores and found that the mineral water and toilet paper had been sold out, so he had to buy some energy drinks for the time being.
Driving from Kanazawa to Shiga-cho, cracks and cavities appeared in the road surface of the highway, and Takeda slowed down and arrived at his grandparents' house at midnight. "Luckily, the house was re-strengthened a few years ago, and only a few cracks appeared in the walls, and my grandmother was slightly bruised. In the aftershocks, Takeda helped the elderly pack up their belongings and pack some food and household items. He said that the walls of the gymnasium, which normally serve as shelters, collapsed due to the tremors. Some neighbors, fearing aftershocks, chose to spend the night in their cars that day.
After the earthquake struck on the afternoon of January 1, the Ishikawa Prefectural Government appealed to the Prime Minister's Office for help, requesting that the Self-Defense Forces be dispatched to the disaster area and that a meeting of the Disaster Response Headquarters be held. About three hours after the earthquake, the prefecture announced for the first time the damage to transportation, water and electricity supply, medical facilities, and social welfare facilities, and police, firefighting, and disaster dispatch medical teams were dispatched. At the same time, the Ishikawa Prefecture Disaster Prevention Portal has begun to update the opening status of evacuation sites in various regions.
The earthquake caused the interruption of communications, electricity, and domestic water in many parts of Ishikawa Prefecture, and Takeda searched for a long time in Shiga Town on the 2nd, but could not buy drinking water, so he had to use containers to receive water from temporary groundwater supply points. The disruption of water supply has severely affected people's lives, and there are long queues in front of the temporary toilets in the shelters.
The situation in Wajima and Zhuzhou is even more dire, as most of the roads leading to the two places have been cut off due to the earthquake, making rescue efforts and supplies difficult. Takeda said that he tried to drive to Wajima City on the 3rd to visit relatives and friends who had lost contact, but halfway through the car he found that the road to Wajima was impassable, and there was no other way to detour.
According to Ishikawa Prefecture's traffic situation, there are two main roads to choose from from Kanazawa City to Wajima City, one of which was severely damaged by the earthquake and closed to traffic, and the other was also partially damaged during the earthquake and there was a risk of landslides. As of the 5th, 23 villages and towns on the Noto Peninsula were "isolated" due to traffic problems.
To a certain extent, the accessibility of transportation is inseparable from the local economic situation. According to a report released by Ishikawa Prefecture in August 2023, the actual GDP of the prefecture in 2020 was 4.4883 trillion yen (about 221.35 billion yuan), ranking 31st among the 47 prefectures in the country, and the per capita annual income of Ishikawa Prefecture was 2.77 million yen (about 136,000 yuan). The sluggish economic development has exacerbated the trend of population ageing in the region.
"There are a lot of people over the age of 80 who can't move on their own, and it's hard to escape on their own unless someone assists them. Takeda said he was helping relief efforts in Shiga and rarely saw young faces, with many elderly people crushed under collapsed houses and some in the shelter suffering from health problems in the low temperatures.
A collapsed house in the disaster area photographed in a car. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Statistics from Ishikawa Prefecture show that as of October 2023, the total population of the prefecture is about 166,000. Ten years ago, in October 2013, the number was about 200,000. Although the local tourism industry is based on Wakura Onsen and Wajima Morning Market, the trend of population decline is difficult to reverse, and the twilight town is more vulnerable to disasters.
"The impact of this disaster on my hometown is unimaginable, and we need more people to help, and I hope that the information for help will be spread. Takeda said.
The struggle of self-help and foreign aid is coordinated
Takeda inspected the water and electricity facilities at his grandparents' home several times, settled the two elderly people, and returned to Kanazawa on the 3rd to purchase supplies. Because he posted about the situation in the disaster area on social media platforms every day, a business in Kanazawa City took the initiative to contact him, hoping to donate supplies and entrust him to send them to the disaster area. After delivering relief supplies to a shelter in Shiga-cho, Takeda returned to load the goods and sailed farther away to Nanao City.
Nanao City is home to Wakura Onsen, and the local hot spring town attracts many visitors in winter. Mr. Ogawa, who lives in Tokyo, took his family to Kagaya, a hot spring inn in Nanao City, for the holidays this year, when he was hit by a strong earthquake. He told The Paper that the hotel is a high-rise building, he lives on the 11th floor, and the elevator was out of use when the earthquake occurred, "It took about 10 minutes for hotel staff to climb to this floor to guide people to evacuate and organize everyone to escape from the stairs." Since the inn faced the coast, Ogawa was quickly directed to evacuate to an elementary school on higher ground.
Ogawa said that the hotel delivered quilts, blankets and food in batches that night, and it was very fast. "The staff at the shelter and the hotel settled hundreds of people in an orderly manner, and when everyone stabilized, the fear was alleviated. "The next day, the hotel staff took some of the passengers who needed it back to the room to pick up their luggage, and contacted the bus to send some of the passengers to the station. The Paper called Kagaya on the 9th, and the staff said that the more than 200 rooms were almost fully booked on the 1st, so there were many people to evacuate during the earthquake. "Fortunately, we conduct evacuation drills at least twice a year, so we have more experience in dealing with disasters. After evacuating all the customers, hundreds of staff at the hotel sent almost all of the supplies to the shelter. Many travelers, including Ogawa, said on social media that they were touched by such treatment during the disaster and expressed their gratitude to the inn.
Snacks provided by Kagaya for evacuation. Respondents: Respondents
Fumihiko Imamura, a professor at the International Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University, said in an interview with The Paper that now that we are in an "era of earth change" with frequent earthquakes, we should take the Great East Japan Earthquake as an opportunity to "bounce back like a spring" to improve disaster prevention capabilities, make full use of the lessons learned from previous disasters, enhance disaster prevention awareness and adhere to daily training.
Ogawa returned to his home in Tokyo safe and sound, but the other residents of Nanao City had nowhere to run and had to cry out for help in the same place. The local Nakajima store appealed for assistance through its social media accounts, and posted a video and text on January 6 saying that five days after the earthquake, basic daily necessities are still in short supply, and only a small amount of water and energy supplements have been received. "Everyone at the city government is working hard. But this is not something that a local government can cope with, and it hopes to get outside assistance and establish a solid chain of command. ”
The Nanao City Government issued a notice on the 8th, saying, "Due to the incomplete material receiving system in the city, individual donations are not accepted." "Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, issued an announcement on the 6th to suspend the receipt of support materials. As Takeda has seen, many volunteers are unorganized to deliver small quantities of supplies, leaving already busy local disaster prevention departments struggling to cope.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed on the 3rd that the government is deploying "push-type support", which means that the central government does not need to wait for the request of the affected local government to send supplies to the disaster area, a measure based on the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The central government has already delivered a large amount of supplies to the collection points in Ishikawa Prefecture on the 3rd, but how to quickly send the materials from the collection points to evacuation centers in various regions and meet the needs of different regions in a targeted manner will test the communication and coordination between the central government and Ishikawa Prefecture and other regions in the prefecture.
On January 3, the Self-Defense Forces delivered supplies to Ishikawa Prefecture. Ishikawa Prefecture X account
It is worth mentioning that the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture asked the Japanese government to send the Self-Defense Forces to assist on the 1st, and the Ministry of Defense set up a 10,000-strong joint task force on the 2nd, unifying the command structure of the Army, Navy, and Air Self-Defense Forces. However, only about 1,000 SDF members were actually deployed in the disaster area on the second day, about 2,000 on the third day, and about 5,000 on the fifth day. In contrast to the Kumamoto earthquake, more than 20,000 Self-Defense Forces participated in the relief effort on the fifth day after the earthquake. Akita Prefecture Governor Keihisa Satake criticized the government's "slow response" in gradually dispatching Self-Defense Forces in response to the Noto Peninsula earthquake on the 9th. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responded, "It's not appropriate to just compare numbers."
The truth and the falsehood in the chaos
Until the evening of January 9, communication signals were still interrupted in some areas of Suzu City, Wajima City, and Noto Town in Ishikawa Prefecture, which also led to the unclear safety of many missing people.
Sena, a Japanese social media blogger who lives in Kanazawa, told The Paper that after the earthquake, she received a large number of messages from netizens from other places, hoping to help confirm the situation of the missing family members in Ishikawa Prefecture through social platforms, so she turned her social platform account into an "information transfer station" to share information for help and responses. From the 2nd to the 8th, she received hundreds of messages a day and searched for effective leads in a large amount of information. "From people's comments, you can feel that the situation in the disaster area is still very bad. ”
Sena said that as the attention to the disaster has increased, there are many people on social media who post fake distress posts to attract attention, which has caused her a lot of trouble. For example, she found a video purporting to be asking for help in Zhuzhou that was actually made from video footage of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. "Such posts not only cover up some genuine calls for help, but also mislead the implementation of rescue operations. ”
The Japanese government is also concerned about the above chaos, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on the 5th that during the disaster, some false information that is easy to cause social chaos has been deleted through the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. He added that there is a view that there is a systemic chain of interests behind the publication of disinformation, and that the necessary countermeasures will be considered with the views of various stakeholders in mind.
"Even more worrying is the crime in the affected areas. Sena said that in recent days, many people have entrusted her to issue the license plate numbers of suspicious vehicles, claiming that these vehicles are selling supplies at high prices in the disaster area, and even committing fraud and theft against the elderly.
According to the Ishikawa Prefectural Police Headquarters, some suspects recently claimed to have been commissioned by the authorities to investigate the damage to their houses, taking advantage of the opportunity to sell supplies at high prices, and some people posed as volunteers to enter the homes of victims to commit thefts. As of the 5th, the county police have received more than 10 reports and consultations on theft and other suspected crimes.
According to the National Police Agency, during the Kumamoto earthquake eight years ago, there were 43 cases of cash, gift certificates, tablets, etc. being stolen from victims' homes. During the Great East Japan Earthquake 13 years ago, there were many cases in which financial institutions defrauded victims of their money on the grounds of "loans for reconstruction in disaster-stricken areas." In addition, the Great East Japan Earthquake Women's Support Network, a non-profit organization, conducted a survey on violence against women and children in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, and many respondents said they had been sexually assaulted by local residents.
Asked about the chaos in the disaster area, Takeda said, "There can't be only good people and no bad people in this world, but I sincerely hope that the bad people will spare the people in the disaster area." "It will take a long time for people in the disaster area in Ishikawa Prefecture to return to normal life, and evacuation may be prolonged, so Takeda will continue to stay in his hometown for a while and do what he can.
Senior editor of this issue: Zhou Yuhua