Photo/Illutration People walk at the Ebisubashi bridge in Osaka’s Chuo Ward on Aug. 15, after Typhoon No. 7 made landfall. (Toshiyuki Hayashi)

The Kii Mountains are known for their precipitous slopes. But in the village of Totsukawa in Nara Prefecture, at the center of the range, the valley was much deeper in the past.

Back then, a joke went that if you dropped a stone from a winding trail along the mountainside, you could smoke a whole cigarette before you heard it splash into the river way below.

But the terrain was completely transformed in August 1889, when a typhoon caused massive landslides that filled the valleys and washed away homes, creating multiple landslide dams.

“Almost an entire village was washed away, together with its natural features,” wrote author Ryotaro Shiba (1923-1996) in “Kaido wo Yuku,” a multivolume series of essays about his travels in Japan and abroad.

In the wake of the catastrophe, the residents of Totsukawa relocated to Hokkaido and founded a new town, which they named Shin-Totsukawa (literally, “New Totsukawa”).

Typhoon No. 7 made landfall on Aug. 15 on the Kii Peninsula, where torrential rains continued until noon in Wakayama and Nara prefectures. The sight of swollen rivers rushing downstream was alarming enough to quicken my breathing, and the flood damage continued to mount.

In Tottori Prefecture, an emergency water discharge was executed at a dam, and local residents were urged to evacuate.

I could not take my eyes off the television. Images from around the nation showed cars overturned and trees felled by the typhoon.

People who were supposed to have been spending the Bon midsummer holiday in their hometowns with their families must have felt bitterly disappointed and unhappy. I could almost hear their grumbling: Why, of all times, did this accursed typhoon have to strike right in the middle of this holiday?

After making landfall, the slow-moving typhoon took a full day to blow out into the Sea of Japan.

But since rivers can start swelling with time, we should not let our guard down yet.

In Japan, an average of three tyhoons are said to make landfall per year. This year, Typhoon No. 7 was the first to do so.

Even in parts of Japan that were unaffected this time, people would be wise to prepare for future events, just in case.

Come to think of it, we may have too many things to prepare for nowadays--not only typhoons, but also days of dangerous heat.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 16

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News