OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--A 200-ton boat deposited on top of a building by the March 11 tsunami will be demolished despite calls for preservation from more than 160 academics.
OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--A 200-ton boat deposited on top of a building by the March 11 tsunami will be demolished despite calls for preservation from more than 160 academics.
Hamayuri, a sightseeing boat owned by the Kamaishi city government, was carried about 400 meters from a dockyard where it was undergoing a maintenance inspection.
It now rests in delicate balance on top of a former guest house in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture.
Takashi Nakata, professor emeritus at Hiroshima University, called for preserving the boat for anti-disaster education.
More than 160 academics, including Yoshihisa Nakamura, president of Iwate Prefectural University, asked the prefectural government to save the boat.
The Kamaishi city government intends to demolish it, however.
Mayor Takenori Noda said he was concerned not only about preservation costs but also about the possibility of the boat falling off its perch.
"I don't think citizens would look favorably on a decision to preserve this boat 20 to 30 years from now," Noda said.
The prefectural government initially told city officials to hold off demolition work after the academics made their plea, but it eventually gave the go-ahead to take down the vessel.
Work to demolish the boat is expected to begin in early May.
Nakata, who specializes in physiography, discovered the land surface portion of the Nojima Fault on Awajishima island in Hyogo Prefecture, which triggered the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
Nakata headed a movement that led to the construction of the Nojima Fault Preservation Museum.
(This article was written by Toshio Kikuchi and Sawaaki Hikita.)