Yoshinobu Owada, head of a unit of the No. 4 branch of the Ofunato fire brigade in Iwate Prefecture, recounts his brush with death and says he would never put anyone else in such a situation.
Yoshinobu Owada, head of a unit of the No. 4 branch of the Ofunato fire brigade in Iwate Prefecture, recounts his brush with death and says he would never put anyone else in such a situation.
"I cannot possibly dispatch young people for the job of closing floodgates," Owada said. "If something bad happens to them, how could I face their families?"
Owada, 41, had finished closing five floodgates on land with his colleagues on March 11. But the sixth gate, which was in the water at Tomari fishing port near Goishi shore, proved more difficult to close, especially with quake damage to the equipment.
After working for more than 10 minutes, Owada was swallowed up by the tsunami. He swam toward the light and climbed on a floating roof. After being adrift for 20 to 30 minutes, he was rescued.
Of the 254 volunteer firefighters killed or reported missing in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures after the March 11 tsunami, many died while trying to close floodgates.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in late November established a committee to discuss measures to protect the nation's 880,000 voluntary firefighters who are tasked with closing floodgates during tsunami.
Some areas are simply getting rid of the floodgates.
Izumi Otsu, a 36-year-old city finance section employee of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, was working on tax returns at the Sanriku branch office near his home when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
As a member of the local voluntary No. 11 branch, his job included closing floodgates near his home during tsunami.
He was able to close five floodgates at Okirai port in less than 10 minutes. After confirming that elderly people who lived alone had evacuated, he fled to higher ground as the tsunami approached.
"I have understood it is a dangerous mission," Otsu said. "But if firefighters do not do the job, who would?"
One member of his team was also swept away and remains missing. A total of three firefighters lost their lives in Ofunato.
The firefighters have been trained to prepare for tsunami triggered from earthquakes from faraway places, such as Chile. So they were caught off-guard by the tsunami that arrived about half an hour after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11.
Iwate Prefecture this month started reviewing its evacuation procedures for residents, and also addressed the problem of closing floodgates more quickly.
On the Pacific Coast of western Japan, where three huge earthquakes--the Tokai, the Higashi-Nankai, and the Nankai--are expected to strike simultaneously, countermeasures for the worst-case scenario are being considered.
Kochi Prefecture, which says a 13-meter tsunami could be unleashed in such a situation, adopted an ordinance three years ago "to create a society that can withstand possible damages caused by the Nankai Earthquake."
Under the ordinance, the prefecture started constructing automatic floodgates and establishing stairs and slopes outside and inside the breakwater to allow firefighters easy passage.
The prefecture also plans to abolish floodgates on land.
A 2-meter-wide, 1-meter-high land-based floodgate in Murotsu port in the prefecture was closed in October by pouring concrete at the entrance.
Shuichi Hamakubo, 60, who heads a unit of the Muroto city's voluntary fire brigade, welcomed the decision.
"I was awakened to the threat of tsunami by the Great East Japan Earthquake," he said. "With the land gates removed, we would not have to rush to close them. I am glad about that."
The prefecture had closed 101 of the 1,173 floodgates on land in the prefecture by the end of March, and plans to remove 100 more in three years from April 2012 in consultation with municipalities and local fisheries associations.
The prefecture will also ensure that 287 gates remain closed even during normal times by the end of March 2012.
It is also considering the inclusion in its contract with firefighters: "When a life-threatening earthquake occurs, one shall not engage in work to close floodgates in the water or on land."
Takashi Ioka, a port security official of the prefecture, said: "I thought we would have to hasten prevention measures in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. I hope there will be no more tragedies in which firefighters lose their lives for their sense of mission."
For areas where abolishing floodgates would be difficult, the prefectural government will discuss new evacuation measures with municipalities and residents.
In Wakayama Prefecture, where an 8.8-meter-high tsunami could be unleashed, all municipalities had conducted emergency checks on their evacuation centers by August.
The checks found that 46 evacuation centers would be difficult for firefighters to reach after they finished closing the floodgates.
The prefecture plans to notify the operators of such floodgates to "flee without closing" them in the event of an emergency.
A Fire and Disaster Management Agency committee consists of 18 members, including researchers, the head of the firefighting department in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, and the director of the disaster management department in Kochi Prefecture.
They plan to come up with safety measures for firefighters by the end of this fiscal year.
According to the agency, some firefighters were swept away by the March 11 tsunami because they weren't carrying walkie-talkies and were unable to get revised information about the height of the tsunami or the state of the floodgates.
The committee will discuss abolishing seldom-used floodgates on land, using remote control to close such gates and halting gate-closing missions after tsunami warnings are issued.
This story was written by Seiji Kanda and Eiichiro Suganuma.