Disasters and Monuments in Japan
On September 1, 1923, the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, one of symbolic hotels of Japan even today, was to restart its service.
Its old structure was replaced with a new building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. But, on the day the Great Kanto Earthquake was set off in the Pacific Ocean coast lines south of Tokyo, resulting in dearth of more than 100,000 citizens of Tokyo, Yokohama, and others. As for the Imperial Hotel, it did not suffer almost any damage. A key Japanese politician sent a message to Wright in the US, informing that his design proved its toughness. But this building was tore down in late 1960s and a new structure was built on the same lot in 1970 when Japanese Expo '70 was held in Osaka in 1970 while still anti-Vietnam War student movements were going on in Japan.
On January 17, 1995, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was under construction between Awaji Island and Honsyu Island, the main island of the Japanese archipelago. It would be featured by the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at 1,991 meters (6,532 ft) when it was completed in 1998.
Though its two main supporting towers already rose 282.8 m (928 ft) above sea level, there were still many jobs to do for its completion. Then suddenly on the day, the bridge was attacked by an M7.3 earthquake whose epicenter was on the northern end of Awaji Island. The earthquake devastated Kobe City, a major port city on the Honsyu Island side over the Bridge, also causing great commotions in Osaka, the central metropolitan area of west Japan, near Kobe. This natural disaster killed almost 6,000 people. However, the Bridge was intact, though ground expansion caused by the earthquake made the total length of the Bridge one meter longer than designed.
Further, on March 11, 2011, the Tokyo Skytree Tower was in the last phase of its construction in a downtown street of Tokyo. The TV tower was planned to reach 634 meters above the ground during March 2011, though its service was to start on February 2012. But on the day this world tallest TV tower was just about 620 meters high. A sub-tower was then being fixed at the upper part of its structure.
Then at 14:46 of the day, namely March 11, 2011, that fatal M9.0 earthquake occurred under the seabed of the North Pacific Ocean some 500 km northeast of Tokyo. It triggered more than 10 meter high tsunami waves, destroying many towns and villages along the Pacific coast lines of north Honsyu Island. Eventually, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was partly inundated to lose emergency power sources, leading to a fuel-melt-down accident. However, the Tokyo Skytree could perfectly withstand the huge commotion of the ground, and Tokyo Bay was safe from big tsunamis most of which were rushing to shores north of Tokyo. Nonetheless, this disaster with a scale that could be observed only once in centuries took on about 20,000 lives of residents in Tohoku Area (northeast of Tokyo).
So, in the past, when historical structures were under construction or on completion, Japan suffered historical disasters.
I am worried about what disaster would happen when a new national sports stadium is completed in Tokyo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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The present National Diet Building, the parliament bldg. of Japan, near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was completed in November 1936.
But in February 1936, a historical attempt of coup d'etat was launched by 1,400 Imperial troops (the February 26 Incident). The the new national Diet Building was almost completed, but as it was not yet used for national assembly meetings, no battles were fought around the Building. But as insurgent officers of the Imperial Army assassinated several leading officials (including two former Prime Ministers) before they surrendered to main troops of the Imperial Army stationed in Tokyo and the emperor himself, this incident gave a great shock to not only the emperor and political leaders but also the general public. It is now regraded as a turning point for the Empire of Japan to incline to militarism. It was a starting pint of the Japan-China War between 1937 and 1945 and the Japan-US War between 1941 and 1945.
So, Japan had better be cautious in planning construction of any great monument or structure.
National Parliament Building Area, Tokyo
