Sea walls and tsunamis

In my last post I wondered when criticism would begin of Japan's expensive and mostly ineffective sea walls.

Sunday, two days following the devastating earthquake and tsunami, NHK was already talking about the inability of sea walls to stop the massive energy of the 9.0 quake. NHK interviewed Japanese scholars from Tokyo University, who questioned such walls, and showed a short segment on Tarō-cho (田老町), Iwate Prefecture (see this short Wiki link), which suffered tsunami damage in 1896 (or 1898*) and 1933 and subsequently built a 10 meter (30 feet) high wall to try to protect itself. I placed a dot on the town in a Google map to indicate the location of the town. I placed the dot on the point where two sea walls converge to form an X, then stretching in four directions. You can zoom out of this map and see the town's location within Japan. You can see the sea walls clearly, although they should be more visible in Google Earth, because you can tilt the view and approach the town from the sea.

The New York Times also has a story about Japan's reliance on sea walls and their ineffectiveness in this recent disaster. The article describes the complacency that can arise when people put too much faith in a man-made structure that cuts them off from a potentially deadly force. If people cannot see the ocean, they cannot watch for small changes that might indicate something dangerous heading their way.

Short post today. I must run to school and try to teach something today about this horrible tragedy.

*I thought I heard NHK say it was the 31st year of Meiji, which would be 1898. However, the Wiki link says the earlier disaster was in 1896.