Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun.
November 5, 2022 at 12:21 JST
J-Alert warnings are displayed on TV screens on the morning of Nov. 3. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A passage in “Makura no Soshi” (The Pillow Book) by Sei Shonagon (circa 966-1025) describes the delicate sound of a flute.
It goes to this effect: “It is interesting that the distant piping of a flute can gradually begin to sound closer. Also, it is very interesting that the piping that sounded near can start receding into the distance, until you hear only the faintest notes.”
I can almost “hear” how the flute’s graceful reverberation varies by distance.
A polar opposite of this may be the shriek of an earthquake or tsunami alarm. A recent spate of ballistic missile launches by North Korea caused the Japanese government to issue its “J-Alert” missile warning on six occasions.
Heard on the Fire and Disaster Management Agency’s official website, the sound was ominously jarring.
As the alarm’s purpose is to heighten citizens’ sense of crisis and encourage them to evacuate, I fully understand that the sound must scream emergency and be able to be heard far away. Still, it is terrifying.
And people can be traumatized if the sound revives some dire memory.
When an earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia in 2012, a warning siren did not go off in a province near the epicenter.
Investigations revealed that the alarm system’s power was turned off because in past drills, many local residents suffered serious panic attacks every time it sounded. Horrors of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which claimed more than 100,000 lives, were still vivid in their memories.
A young local provincial government official, whom I interviewed, told me that immediately after the quake struck, he raced to the beach to switch on the alarm system. But he was overwhelmed by the oncoming flow of fleeing people.
“There were people whose nightmares could still be brought back by the sound of the alarm,” he explained.
Nobody wants to hear alarms, but they need to be sounded in times of emergency. Also, people can become inured to them through repetition. In war-torn Ukraine, citizens are saying they have become used to air raid alarms, which is tragic. The alarms represent their sad fate.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 5
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