Australian Teacher Ran From Auditorium During Earthquake
FTV shows footage of the efforts to rescue people who had been trapped under a collapsed ceiling in a Tokyo auditorium following the March 11th earthquake:
The scene was filmed by a foreign teacher who had been attending the graduation ceremony for his vocational school. FTV interviews him and a colleague, both of whom give their comments in English.
One of the two teachers has also talked to the Australian media. In a sensational March 19th article about people fleeing Tokyo, he seems to say that his decision to panic and run like hell saved his life. There was apparently an announcement asking people to stay where they were, and he believes that the Japanese cultural tendency not to “disobey authority” caused some people to be killed when the ceiling collapsed:
a 10-year resident of Tokyo, escaped death by seconds when he defied orders and ran from the Kudan Kaikan theatre during an awards ceremony. The ceiling of the auditorium collapsed just as he fled.
The woman sitting two seats to his left was killed.
He said as the building began to shake during last Friday’s earthquake, people were told to stay in their seats.
”It’s very disrespectful in Japan to disobey authority, so everybody just sat there. But my colleague and I just decided we had to get out.”
(He) has moved with his wife to Nagoya to wait out the crisis.
”I feel safer here for the moment. There are conflicting stories. Some people say Tokyo is fine, others are fleeing for their lives.
”I don’t think the government is lying. I just think perhaps they are being selective in what they tell us.
”They don’t want there to be panic, they don’t want Tokyo to get jammed up, they don’t want the economy damaged any more.”
In another article, the author goes into detail about how he shoved people out of the way so he could flee the building, and alleges that he helped with the rescue effort:
Pushing through his fellow audience members to reach the door, he was initially joined only by a few other foreigners. But as the whole theatre “began shaking like all hell” (He) was followed by a stream of Japanese and non-Japanese alike. Reaching the outside, (He) and his cohort turned to witness an exodus of patrons fleeing the stricken building.
[...]
Venturing into the building, the Australian discovered that the theatre’s massive concrete ceiling had collapsed.
“It was a big, decorated concave ceiling that dislodged and fell in one big chunk. It completely flattened the seats where 60 people were sitting,” he said.
Disregarding his own safety, (He) joined scores of men who tried to move the collapsed ceiling and reach survivors.
They worked desperately for half an hour, rescuing several trapped people, until the rescue crews arrived.
The theatre was hosting an awards ceremony for a tourism college, where (he) is employed.
At least two people were killed in the collapse of the theatre, with dozens injured, he said.
Fearful of radiation poisoning, (He) and his wife have since moved to Nagoya, 260km west of Tokyo.
“We really need help here for food and medicine. People are starving, and old people are dropping like flies,” he said.
In retrospect, (his) decision to leave his seat and run for the exit appears to have prevented him from being killed or seriously injured. However, it would be unfair to bash the Japanese audience members who stayed in their seats, especially in a way that implies that Japanese people are drones who blindly obey authority. Few people could have predicted that the ceiling would have collapsed, and most of Tokyo’s older buildings survived the March 11th quake without any serious damage.
From the CDC:
If you are in a crowded public place, do not rush for the doorways.
Others will have the same idea. Move away from display shelves containing objects that may fall. If you can, take cover and grab something to shield your head and face from falling debris and glass.
If everyone in Tokyo had followed his example of pushing, shoving, and running out of buildings, it seems likely that the resulting chaos would have hurt a lot more people.
UPDATE: Read the teacher’s version of the story here!
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