Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

48 PERSISTENT PROBLEMS, PROMISING SOLUTIONS AND BENEFICENCEarranged public awareness activities by introducingDisaster Management Day every 1 September, incommemoration of the day of Great Kanto Earthquakein 1923 (as a result of a Cabinet agreement in 1960),Disaster Management Week, every 30 August to 5September (as a result of a Cabinet agreement in 1982),disaster management drills, disaster managementseminars, disaster management fairs and so on.The Comprehensive Disaster Management Drill wasintroduced in 1971. The main objective of this drill isto confirm and verify the disaster management systemsand training. All government bodies, as well as privatecompanies, disaster management organizations andresidents, take part in this drill. The Prime Minister alsoattends this drill. The number of participants in the drillin 2005 was around 1.9 million people.Public awareness activities include a DisasterManagement Poster Contest. Children and young adultsmay join this contest. In 2005, 8,435 applications weresent from all over Japan. The prize-winning posters areused for awareness-raising activities.However, Prof. Tomohide Atsumi from OsakaUniversity has noted that the real turning point forJapanese disaster management at the present time wasthe Kobe earthquake on 17 January 1995. 3 This massiveearthquake, which killed 6,433 people, collapsed123,000 houses and buildings and displaced 316,000people, triggered a tremendous disaster response aswell as ignited a great deal of volunteerism. About 1.2million people volunteered themselves to assist thevictims of the Kobe earthquake and helped the recoveryof the city. The Niigata earthquake in October 2004was the second turning point for volunteer activities inJapan. People from all over Japan came to Ojiya City inNiigate Prefecture to help the victims. They took leavefrom their jobs and studies or came to the area regularlyfor several months.Prof. Toshio Sugiman from Kyoto University supportedthis rough observation by stating that since 1995,volunteering activities have became more popular inJapan, and the government positively responded to thistrend by enacting a Volunteering and Disasters Actimmediately after 1995, which established a volunteers’center in affected areas. 4The Japanese Red Cross is among the most prominentnon-profit organizations (NPO) and non-governmentalorganizations (NGO) that seriously pay attention to andtirelessly carry out emergency response programs forthe victims of disasters, especially earthquake victims.This agency has also equipped itself with supportingfacilities, emergency tools, hospitals and even bloodcenters. Therefore, it will always be ready to cope withunexpected future disasters at any time. 5Besides the Japanese Red Cross, other NPOs and localpeople have also played an important role in assistingearthquake victims, particularly in the aftermath of theKobe earthquake in 1995 and the Niigata earthquakein 2004. Rescue Stock Yard, a Nagoya-based NPO,and the Tokyo-based Shanti Volunteers Association areamong the notable Japanese NPOs dealing with disastervictims and disaster preparedness. However somevolunteers simply jumped into disaster-affected areas bythemselves, without engaging with any agencies. 6In line with disaster management countermeasuresis disaster mitigation education. Disaster mitigationeducation is unequivocally classified as one significantpart of disaster preparedness. For the case of earthquakemitigation education in Japan, public educationfor earthquake preparedness is provided in Japanin various forms, starting with the school curricula,exercises in evacuation and fire prevention, mutualhelp, collective cooperation, experiencing shaking inearthquake simulators and booklets and documentaryfilm dissemination.There are many disaster mitigation training centersdesignated to the public nationwide (shimin bousaisenta) as well as fire museums (belonging to firefighteragencies) which also provide self-help training incoping with disasters. However, the most importantdisaster studies center remains the Great Hanshin AwajiMemorial, a museum and training center establishedin 2002 commemorating the Kobe earthquake of 17January 1995. 7Policies and victim services in Thailand’s disastermanagementNatural hazards or natural disasters that frequentlyoccur in Thailand are droughts, earthquakes,epidemics, floods, landslides, waves/surges, wild firesand windstorms (WCDR Report 2006). The massiveearthquake that triggered a tsunami on 26 December2004 was among the most severe disasters in Thailandfor centuries. The catastrophic incident devastated407 villages in six southwestern provinces, namelyPhuket, Trang, Phang Nga, Krabi, Ranong and Satun.The tsunami took almost 8,000 lives and caused totalfinancial losses of USD2 billion.Right after the tsunami waves ebbed, relief activitieswere immediately and continuously activated. It isAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows