It’s Disaster Prevention Day. Did you have your “fire drill” yet?

This morning’s Mezamashii Terebi informed me that today was the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, a horribly destructive disaster that leveled much of Tokyo and led to chaos in which many non-Japanese Asians were lynched by rumor-fueled mobs. I also learned that the government had declared today to be Disaster Prevention Day at some point many years ago. Crisscross News reports that there were a lot of disaster drills today:

The government on Friday morning began staging earthquake drills involving about 800,000 people in 38 of the nation’s 47 prefectures to improve disaster preparedness.

Annual drills are held on Disaster Prevention Day, the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of Sept 1, 1923, which was a magnitude 7.9 quake. Subsequent fires destroyed large parts of Tokyo and Yokohama.

This year’s drills focus on ways to cope with big quakes under a scenario that magnitude 7.3 and 8.0 quakes occurred in Tokyo Bay in eastern Japan and Suruga Bay in central Japan respectively.

While I was not a part of the drills this morning, the elementary school I was working at today did indeed have a Fire/Earthquake drill. Like every other fire/earthquake drill I’ve experienced in Japan, all the participants were informed of the drill days in advance. When the kids finished their cleaning period, they returned to their classrooms to sit at their desks and await the drill, which they all knew was going to take place during their 5th period that day. Five minutes before the drill, the principal announced over the intercom that the drill would be taking place in 5 minutes, and that everyone should get ready for it. Five minutes later the principal announced over the intercom that a huge earthquake had just happened and the school was probably on fire. The kids filed down the stairs in a orderly manner, holding hankerchiefs over their mouths to prevent imaginary smoke inhilation. Instead of going outside, they went into the gym to sit down and listen to the principal give a rambling speech about disaster prevention. Why did they not go outside? Well, it was raining lightly outside.

As Japanese fire/earthquake drills go, it was a resounding success. I think it’s safe to say the teachers and kids at that school are going to be 100% prepared for if such a disaster actually happens. Of course, they’ll need to be told about it days in advance and given a special 5 minute warning before hand. Let’s hope it happens on a sunny day as well.

What’s that you say, fire drills in your country are random, and meant to actually simulate the experience of being taken surprise by a disaster? That’s retarded.