Photo/Illutration Mount Ontakesan on Sept. 27, 2014 (Makiko Ikenaga)

The clock showed it was 11:52 a.m. Looking up at the clear autumn sky, I imagined the sky must have been just as blue at precisely that time when Mount Ontakesan, a volcano, erupted on Sept. 27, 2014.

The mountain straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures. I climbed it the other day after hearing that access restrictions to the summit area had been eased for the first time in nine years since the deadly eruption. There, I tried to visualize a massive column of smoke suddenly rising from the mountaintop.

At an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, the clean and crisp air must enhance the colors of everything in sight. I was struck by the vividness of the colors of the jackets worn by happy, laughing climbers.

Nothing could be more different from the photos of bleak, gray scenes I was so used to seeing at the time of the disaster.

While thinking such thoughts, the odor of volcanic gas wafted from afar, suddenly drawing my attention to the rocky outcroppings around me.

Where did the victims try to hide? What did they feel?

Sayuri Ogawa, who survived by crouching behind a rock, recalled her experience in her book “Ontakesan Funka Seikansha no Shogen” (Testimony of a survivor of the Mount Ontakesan eruption).

The darkness brought on by volcanic smoke was so thick, she could not even see her own hands, she wrote. All she heard was the sound of innumerable flying rocks cracking in midair. She could not help giggling in sheer terror.

A total of 63 people died or went missing.

Even then, however, this was a relatively minor volcanic activity that was driven by steam explosions.

When nature unleashes its power with abandon, there is not much humans can do.

An evacuation shelter has been erected at the summit of Mount Ontakesan to protect climbers from volcanic rocks and it felt reassuring. However, I think this structure will be completely useless against a high-temperature pyroclastic flow. We should always be afraid.

As I looked back on my way down the mountain, I noticed the leaves were changing color, starting from the peak and slowly working their way down.

A memorial ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 27 at the foot of Mount Ontakesan. Nature can deeply impress humans as well as cause profound grief.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 27

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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.

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