Small and Big Disasters

Much has been written and reported about the eruption of Mt. Ontake on the 27th of September, so I shall not repeat that here in length. I’d rather like to reflect on the reaction of the media to the event and some personal volcano experiences.

Just quickly to recap what happened: Mt. Ontake is one of over 100 active volcanoes of the Japanese islands. 47 of them (or was it 48?) are monitored 24/7. Mt. Ontake is one of those under constant surveillance. Despite that there was no indication (apparently) that a gas explosion would happen.

Had it occurred in winter, this explosion would probably not have been a big deal. Trouble was it happened on a Saturday noon, in excellent weather, during the peak of the autumn leaves viewing season. Many more people than usual were on the mountain. Had the explosion occurred at night or on a weekday there also would have been far fewer victims. The timing of the explosion was the worst possible.

I’m not exactly an outdoor person and have only been scrambling around three active volcanoes in my life so far: Mt. Fuji, Mt. Aso on the southern island of Kyushu during my student times, and two years ago Mt. Mihara on the island of Oshima. When I was at Mt. Aso (last (smaller) eruption 2004) I got more or less sick from intense sulfur stench and fled the area around the crater very quickly. At Mt. Fuji I didn’t manage to get to the top (it’s last eruption was in 1707). At Mt. Mihara (the home of Godzilla by the way) smoke was rising from various corners but it didn’t smell of sulfur, rather like BBQ = coal. At Mt. Mihara I noticed sensors at several of the smoke vents. I suppose they give off an alarm/alert when the gas-mix changes. The last major eruption of Mt. Mihara happened 1986, a smaller one in 1990.

Now to the media: I found the reporting in Japan about what happened at Mt. Ontake excessive, repetitive and incomplete at the same time. NHK showed the same footage over and over, while avoiding such questions as to why there had been no warning in advance. These were answered only days later when we all got lessons on volcanic eruptions on TV showing the differences between a hot-water/gas explosion as happened on Mt. Ontake and an eruption involving magma. When magma moves there are small (or not so small) earthquakes. There were some quakes at Mt. Ontake too but different from magma movements, so nobody registered them as dangerous or as an indicator that something would happen. On a volcanic eruption scale the Mt. Ontake eruption was minor, but it cost so many lives because of the bad timing mentioned earlier.

What I mean with the reporting being excessive is the dramatic tone and the amount of screen time it got. Well, I guess that wouldn’t be much different in other countries. But despite the eruption being on TV all the time, I felt uninformed and the major question of why there had been no pre-warning to the hikers was left unanswered for what felt way too long.

Now to the small drama that happened yesterday, which has nothing to do with volcanic eruptions.

Every workday I emerge from the subway at Shibuya station in the Hikarie building and am of the habit to store my Walkman and get out the company badge in the elevator hall. I did so Friday morning as well and suddenly was distracted by shouting outside. Looking up provided a view at several fire fighter cars, an ambulance, police, a roped off area and fire fighters spreading a net. The net gave the clue – we have a jumper.

I left the building and police people ushered me away from it – yes, wise move, it happened already twice that someone jumped off the roof of the Parco department store in Ikebukuro and killed not only him/herself, but also pedestrians below him at the always busy station exit…

So I quickly brought some distance between myself and the building. Of course there were dozens of onlookers and I joined them, but it took a while to see the problem. I finally spotted the guy on a part of the building that protrudes from the rest of it. He didn’t behave very suicidal though, waving at people. I was too far away to see clearly, but for a moment it looked as if he was making victory signs. I suppose this was an act of deliberate provocation or he was high on some drug. Local news reported he didn’t jump and is now in custody. There has been no word yet on why he did this.

The reaction of the crowd, myself included, was so interesting. You just have to know and to look. The curiosity of wanting to know what’s going on is utterly overwhelming. I am no exception and snapped pictures of the guy and tweeted them. Rather than “craving for sensation”, it’s burning curiosity – something out of the ordinary is happening and we have to know what it is. You can’t just walk on and go to work, you have to see what’s happening. I found it remarkable though that I could leave and head to work after I had spotted the guy. I did not have to wait for the result of the action happening, but not knowing its nature was too hard to bear…