A peninsula jutting out into the Sea of Japan was struck by a gigantic earthquake.

Roads and communication networks were torn apart, many communities became isolated, and the search and rescue and relief operations for the victims have been hampered by many formidable challenges.

"It's tougher than any disaster we've experienced, including the Great Hanshin, Great East Japan and Kumamoto earthquakes,” said an official involved in the emergency response efforts, speaking for all the people from both the public and private sectors who have been struggling to reach affected areas to help victims.

It has been a month since the Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred. The death toll is approaching 240. Causes of death include crush syndrome, suffocation and hypothermia.

Could none of these lives have been saved? We must not dismiss the disaster that has caused such massive fatalities as an event "beyond our expectations.”

It is vital to review the nation’s preparedness for natural disasters and systems to respond to the possible destruction by the forces of nature while providing support to victims in a manner that encourages them to talk about the future of their communities.

This approach is indispensable for reconstructing the Noto region and for a country prone to natural disasters whose population is shrinking and aging.

PROVIDE ALL POSSIBLE SUPPORT FOR VICTIMS

More than 14,000 people are still taking refuge in evacuation centers. With widespread water outages, primary evacuation facilities, such as schools and community halls, rely on water supply services.

The living environment for evacuees is gradually improving with the installation of portable toilets and shower tents, but concerns about infectious diseases in crowded situations persist amid the biting cold.

The focus of support should be on caring for the victims and stabilizing their lives.

The Okunoto region in the northern part of the central Japanese peninsula is blessed with a rigid but rich nature.

In this region, many local residents’ livelihoods and “ikigai,” a sense of purpose that gives life meaning, are inseparable and are deeply rooted in fishing and agriculture, making it difficult for many of them to leave their hometowns.

One such local resident in the hard-hit city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, is Mutsumi Michishita, 57, who had been running a seafood stall on the "Asaichi Dori,” a famed shopping street known for morning market, for 20 years.

The street has been totally destroyed by fires and the number of victims in the city has exceeded 100.

Michishita spends nights in her damaged home near the ruined street or in her car. Visiting shelters, she shares painful experiences with friends whose houses were burnt out, supporting each other emotionally.

Nobody knows when the beloved morning market will be reopened. The future of Wajima lacquerware, a traditional craft with a long history, is also in jeopardy.

Yet, Michishita believes her resolve to stay and restore her livelihood in this place will serve as a beacon of resilience and a symbol of reconstruction.

"I will wait here until the community is reconstructed," she says.

Support for victims staying at damaged homes, such as Michishita, tends to be delayed. Along with measures for evacuation centers, this issue also needs urgent action.

CREATE PLACES TO DISCUSS REGION'S FUTURE

The Ishikawa prefectural government, as part of its response to the earthquake, has secured accommodation facilities in areas that were relatively unscathed, including parts of the prefecture to the south of Kanazawa, the prefecture’s capital, as "secondary evacuation centers."

Prefectural officials have encouraged people living in primary evacuation facilities and homes to move to these facilities.

More than 5,000 people have moved, but some are now returning to their local shelters because, they say, they feel more secure among their neighbors.

Some others have probably decided to move to new places.

To stay or to leave is a difficult decision for the victims. What they need is a clear perspective on the future of their familiar communities.

Alongside providing them with detailed and regularly updated information about the restoration of life infrastructure and the completion of temporary housing, discussions on the region's reconstruction should be initiated and promoted.

Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase stresses the need for "creative reconstruction." The Noto Peninsula is an area suffering from severe depopulation.

Rather than merely restoring it to its pre-disaster state, a perspective on how to develop sustainable communities is crucial for debate on the future of the region.

The coordinated efforts to rebuild devastated communities should be centered on the people affected by the disaster themselves.

"Creative reconstruction" was also advocated in the aftermath of the Great Hanshin and Great East Japan earthquakes, with calls for swift rebuilding.

Hasty construction of new buildings and land elevation to create new residential and commercial districts by the administration, however, led to vacancies in floors and lands, leaving many local shop owners who restarted their businesses grappling with heavy economic burdens.

This approach has created new problems for local residents’ efforts to rebuild their livelihoods.

Securing places for residents to talk to each other should be the first priority. During some past disasters, small meetings to think about the future while looking at the region's 3-D models, created with the support of architects and other experts, were held.

Local administrations should first take action to help affected local residents realize their carefully developed visions for the future of their communities, and then the national government should support such efforts without misplacing priorities.

PREPAREDNESS REVIEW IS ESSENTIAL

A rigorous review of the nation’s preparedness for natural disasters and systems to respond to them must not be forgotten.

The prefectural government’s assumptions concerning a potential major earthquake were based on estimates made in fiscal 1997, which projected that a quake triggered by the active fault off the Noto Peninsula would cause seven deaths and completely destroy 120 buildings.

The death toll from the Jan. 1 temblor has already grown to 34 times the projection while the number of confirmed totally destroyed buildings has reached 17 times.

Local administrations develop disaster response and damage mitigation plans based on certain damage assumptions. Earthquake damage projections are updated following the national long-term evaluation of active faults.

However, this basic workflow for predicting earthquake damage and making necessary preparations has been hindered by delays in the national government’s evaluation process, and the old assumptions remained unchanged.

The prefectural administration had started its own review of the projections in response to an earthquake swarm that had rocked the Noto Peninsula since the end of 2020, but it was too late.

As a result, the underestimation of damage led to insufficient quake response measures.

One consequence of inadequate preparedness was the shortage of operational bases for people involved in local support and recovery. As there are limits to sleeping in hallways or cars, many people involved in relief and recovery operations must commute from the Kanazawa area, where accommodations were secured.

The long time that such commuting requires is causing delays in the restoration and reconstruction of the devastated areas.

Moreover, it is also crucial to examine whether and how the inadequacy of disaster prevention plans affected the initial response.

While both the central and prefectural governments emphasize there was no such delay, a broad investigation and analysis must be made to cover the responses of the Self-Defense Forces, fire and police departments, as well as medical and nursing care services.

The challenges and lessons presented by this earthquake are not merely a problem for one peninsula.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 1