Earthquake Man

Discussions about earthquakes in Kochi-prefecture rarely have room for conditionals. Statements like "IF there were a big earthquake," "IF your house should fall down," or "IF a tsunami came," are replaced by "WHEN the big earthquake hits and your house falls down, head for the hills because the tsunamis ARE on their way!"


Results of the last big earthquake in Kochi, 1946

So certain is a big earthquake in the region that it already has a name. It's called the Nankai Earthquake, and its magnitude will be around 8.4 (compared to 7.3 for the Kobe earthquake). Muroto - just down the road - can expect tsunamis of about 12 metres (compared to the 5 metre waves that devastated the coastlines of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India in December). My house should be safe from tsunamis (I think...), but when the dams burst upstream, there will be tsunamis from both directions. Not an entirely pleasant thought.



The Nankai earthquake strikes about once every 100 years, and given that the last big quake was only 59 years ago, the chance of it going off in the next year or two is tolerably slim (10% chance in the next 10 years). But stretch that timeline out to 50 years and the odds rise to about 80%. It's scary to think that all of my Japanese friends here in Kochi will more than likely experience it in their lifetimes. My supervisor seems to live in fear of it, mumbling how he wishes he lived in Australia. I tell him we may not have earthquakes, but that we do have bushfires. But we both know it's not the same thing, and that Japan's deep-seated fear of earthquakes is not without good reason.


Photo of modern Kochi and the same photo taken right after the 1946 quake knocked down the city then swallowed it up with tsunamis (click for bigger size).

But as Japanese as the fear of earthquakes and tsunamis may be, even more quintessentially 'Japanese' is the act of turning them into cute cartoon characters. Kochi-born cartoonist Takashi Yanase, creator of the now legendary Anpanman - the superhero who feeds hungry kids with his red-bean bread head (I went to his museum last year - a couple of photos here) - has done the impossible. He succeded in making even the horror of natural disasters cute.



The heroes are 'Countermeasure-boy' (top-right) 'Help-girl' (next to him) 'Guidance-guy' (bottom-right) and the Proff. But cute as the heroes may be, it's mean old 'Earthquake-man' (top-right) and his sidekick 'Tsunami-man' (bottom-left) that steal the show.

Those are two cartoon-characters I never want to meet!