Following the Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 11 March 2011, the Japanese government began constructing a series of 440 seawalls along the north-eastern coast of Honshu. Cumulatively measuring 394.2km, they are designed to defend coastal communities against tsunami that frequently strike the region. We present a case study of the new seawall in Tarō, Iwate Prefecture, which had previously constructed massive sea defences in the wake of two tsunami in 1896 and 1933, which were subsequently destroyed in 2011. We ask whether the government has properly imagined the next disaster for the era of climate change and, therefore, whether its rationale for Tarō‘s new seawall is sufficient. We argue that the government has implemented an incremental strengthening of Tarō‘s existing tsunami defence infrastructure. Significantly, this does not anticipate global warming driven sea level rise, which is accelerating, and which requires transformational adaptation. This continues a national pattern of disaster preparedness and response established in the early 20th century, which resulted in the failure to imagine the 2011 tsunami. We conclude by recalling the lessons of France's Maginot Line and invoke the philosophy of Tanaka Shōzō, father of Japan's modern environmental movement, who urged Japanese to adjust to the flow (nagare) of nature, rather than defend against it, lest they are undone by the force of its backflow (gyakuryū).

The Northeast Japan triple disasters have raised questions about the adequacy of government planning for water damage at Fukushima, yet other components of the built environment also contributed to loss of property and life in unanticipated ways. Such “surprises” associated with large-scale construction have a long history. To illustrate, in addition to exploring ways in which the built environment shaped the tsunami's impact, I examine negative consequences from the construction of the Okotsu Diversion Channel (Niigata). Through the example of a major flood in Tochio (Niigata), I show unexpected links to a government policy, the Meiji Land Tax Reforms, that did not deal with water control at all.

The first tsunami that hit northern Japan in March 2011 was a big wave of salt water. The second tsunami was comprised of cement dikes designed to protect against a tsunami. The third tsunami is a socio-political process that erases memory of the disaster. The nuclear disaster that followed the first tsunami has reactivated the dispute over the effects of low-dose radiation. This controversy, which dates back to the experience of the hibakusha in 1945, includes a problem of hermeneutics—a conflict of interpretation—over what is being counted as “data”.

Yakushima is a small, mountainous island off southern Kyushu, Japan. Its proximity to active volcanos and subduction zones leaves Yakushima vulnerable to large megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis, in addition to powerful typhoons and storm surges. These hazardous events deposit beach boulders: large rocks moved above sea-level by powerful waves. By radiocarbon dating the fossilized coral within these boulders, one can derive age estimates of the hazard events. Reliably estimating the magnitude and timing of geological events in the historical record is vital for future hazard prediction and mitigation. In this study, we estimated the deposition age of ten boulders on the north coast of Yakushima to infer potential paleo tsunamis and storm surges. We found that large wave events have occurred frequently throughout the Holocene. Based on the boulders’ ages, we identified four potential deposition events at 1986–2692 cal yr BP, 3522–4075 cal yr BP, 4773–5232 cal yr BP, and 6187–6638 cal yr BP. These deposits are likely a result of storm surges, or tsunamis from nearby volcanic activity or subduction earthquakes. Another set of boulders dated to 5125–5738 cal yr BP were likely exposed due to a decline in sea-level following the Holocene high sea-level stand. Further modelling could determine the wave height necessary to move the boulders and distinguish between storm and tsunami deposits. This is especially pertinent given the high frequency of coastal geohazards, and the likelihood of similar hazards impacting southeast Japan in the future.

Tsunamis are huge disasters that can significantly damage benthic organisms and the sea-bottom environment in coastal areas. It is of great ecological importance to understand how benthic ecosystems respond to such destructive forces and how individual species are affected. Investigating the effect of such disasters on animals that are seldom caught alive is particularly difficult. Bivalve mollusks are especially suitable for investigating how a tsunami affects coastal benthic species because they preserve an environmental record in their shells that can be extended back in time by crossdating the records of multiple individuals. Here we studied dead shells of Mercenaria stimpsoni, a long-lived clam, and precisely determined the time of death by using nuclear bomb–induced radiocarbon (bomb-14C) and by counting annual growth increments. First, a quasi-continuous, regional bomb-14C record was created by analyzing the shells of 6 live-caught M. stimpsoni individuals. Then 27 dead shells collected from the seafloor of Funakoshi Bay were 14C-dated and analyzed. The results showed that the huge tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011 caused mass mortality of this bivalve in Funakoshi Bay. Nine of the 27 clams died during the March 2011 tsunami, probably by starvation after burial by tsunami deposits or exposure above the seafloor as a result of sediment liquefaction during the earthquake. The dating method used in this study can help us understand how long-lived marine organisms with low population density are affected by huge natural disasters such as a tsunami.

Tectonic hazards have profoundly influenced Māori relationships with, and understandings of, the environment, with oral histories and ethnographic records referencing recurring encounters with volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis across Aotearoa-New Zealand. This research works alongside members of the Māori kin-group Ngāti Kuri to deliberate and compare active oral histories with two ethnographic records that potentially refer to ancestral experience with past tsunami(s) in the Kaikōura region. It applies an inductive-based methodology informed by “collaborative storytelling,” with the intent to appreciate the manner in which Ngāti Kuri interpret their past and present. The research affirms past catastrophic saltwater inundations and potential tectonic disturbances in the Kaikōura region. It also affirms that ethnographic records are not necessarily full or accurate accounts of historical events. The accounts presented here contribute to the reclaiming of Ngāti Kuri histories and point to new plural learning opportunities about coseismic tsunami hazard and history across the region.

The study of paleoclimates enables us to improve and better constrain climate models in order to forecast future climate variations. Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS11), which began around 425,000 yr BP and lasted about 65,000 yr, is a warm isotope stage of paramount importance, because the astronomical configuration was similar to the one characterizing the Holocene. Therefore, this warm isotope stage is the most appropriate analog to present-day climate known to date. This study aims to provide new data on sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) inferred from the carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of skeletal carbonates of marine invertebrates preserved in two marine deposits of the Canary Islands located at Piedra Alta, Lanzarote, and Arucas, Gran Canaria. According to published isotopic fractionation equations the marine deposit from Arucas recorded SSTs of 15.9 ± 2.2°C on average, while the tsunamite from Piedra Alta recorded SSTs of 21.2 ± 1.9°C on average. Absolute dating, mollusc assemblages, and calculated marine temperatures suggest that the Arucas marine deposit corresponds to the beginning of MIS11, while the Piedra Alta tsunamite was formed during MIS11c. These results show that low latitudes also experienced sizable SST changes during interglacial stages.

This article analyzes the first video game in the Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (2002, Disaster Report) series for Sony's PlayStation 2 console against the backdrop of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In the game, players must use limited resources to escape from an earthquake-stricken city while rescuing other survivors. The article argues that the game makes visible the marginal victims and narratives of survival often erased under the collective rhetoric of national trauma. This is explored in relation to disaster photography and artistic representations of 3.11. The article suggests that the game's narrative rejects governmental rhetoric about nuclear energy and that the gameplay mechanisms utilize “limited engagement” or a form of operationalized weakness in order to communicate victimhood to players. The article concludes with an examination of how the in-game disaster photography inscribes players’ actions, making it more difficult to subsume these images into a generalized account of natural disaster trauma.

In April 2017, some of the health impacts of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunamis, and resultant Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster (Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) were presented at the 19th Congress of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM; Madison, Wisconsin USA) in Toronto, Canada. A panel discussion was then opened by asking audience members about their experiences in their own countries, and how they would suggest taking steps to reach the goals of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. This paper summarizes the presentation and panel discussion, with a particular focus on the common problems identified in understanding and reducing health risks from disasters in multiple countries, such as the ethical and practical difficulties in decision making on evacuating vulnerable populations that arose similarly during the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 and Hurricane Ike’s approach to Galveston (Texas USA) in 2008. This paper also highlights the need for greater integration of research, for example through increased review and collation of evidence from different disaster settings to identify common problems and possible solutions, which was identified in this panel session as a precursor to fulfilling the goals of the Sendai Framework.

Leppold C, Ochi S, Nomura S, Murray V. The Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunamis, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster: lessons for evidence integration from a WADEM 2017 presentation and panel discussion. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(4):424–427

The Aleutian subduction zone is capable of generating magnitude ~9 earthquakes that have local impact and broadcast their destructive power across the Pacific through tsunamis. Field surveys of the tsunami from the 1957 Great Aleutian earthquake (reported Mw 8.6) indicate a tsunami amongst the largest of the twentieth century. In the eastern half of the rupture zone, stranded logs record up to 18 m run-up in the Islands of Four Mountains (IFM) and 32±2 m on Unalaska Island. In conjunction with archaeological studies in the region, these observations show the potential impact of tsunamis on the ancient peoples in the IFM. Simulation of the near-field tsunami produced from the published slip distribution of 1957 is almost an order of magnitude smaller than all field observations. Increasing the earthquake magnitude and amount of eastern slip used in forward models of the tsunami demonstrate that run-up observations can be achieved throughout the eastern Aleutians if the earthquake was more than twice as large—at least Mw 8.8 earthquake with 10–20 m of eastern slip. Additionally, up to five possible IFM paleotsunami deposits agree with the regional picture of regular large events, illustrating the circum-Pacific tsunami hazard from the east-central Aleutians.