Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned fromthe 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, March 1-4, 2012, Tokyo, Japan

Appeal by the Japan Association for Earthquake
EngineeringPREFACEThe Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering (JAEE) is an institution that aims to develop thescience and technology related with earthquake engineering and disaster mitigation. It is characterized
by its wide scope, ranging from the traditional engineering to societal issues. After the giant
earthquake on March 11, 2011, JAEE members have been devoted intensely to damage investigationand developing reconstruction strategies together with proposing preparedness of the community for
future giant earthquakes. Upon one year after the March 11 event, JAEE makes a public appeal
towards the engineers, people, and the nation as well as the world. What follows is a brief English
summary of this appeal.

INTRODUCTION
Recovery and reconstruction of the earthquake-hit society is a difficult and complicated job.
Preparedness for future big earthquakes is not easy either. There are and will be many arguments andconflicts between different opinions about the directions to go. To avoid unnecessary delay andunfortunate consequences, it is essential for all the stakeholders to agree what follows;- the bases of the prosperity of the nation and the happiness of the people have to be respected,- those bases have to be conserved and transferred to the future generations, and- in pursue of the above two long-term themes, the nation should not be affected by short-term
conflicts that may occur between decisions made by policy makers and the feeling of the people.
The characteristics of natural disasters depend on the types of our civilization and community. As
the civilization and community change with time, the types of disasters change. Therefore, we always
encounter with unexpected new types of disasters upon every big earthquake. For example, problemsof lifelines and telecommunication facilities started only a few decades ago. Upon the March-11 event,tsunami and nuclear problems as well as soil liquefaction in personal properties emerged. Although it
is not easy to foresee new kinds of problem prior to the occurrence of disasters, we need to continue
watching our changing community and try to detect possibility of new types of problems during future
events.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARCH-11 EARTHQUAKE DISASTER
The disasters caused by the M=9 earthquake were characterized by the vastness of the damaged area
and the significant interaction among individual damages. Because transportation networks stopped
operation at many places, supply of emergency goods and fuels stopped as well, emergency activities
became very difficult, industrial activities slowed down, and jobs for affected people decreased
significantly. Until the time of this gigantic earthquake, the significance of the vastness and interactionof damages had not been understood precisely.
The compound damage mechanism have to be understood properly. This mechanism means thattwo or more causative mechanisms of damage occur together and worsen the situation. For example, it
is likely that foundation of some structures in coastal areas was first affected by subsoil liquefaction
and then tsunami washed them away totally, although verification being impossible after the tsunami
attack. Electricity supply to the Fukushima 1 Power Plant was destroyed by the earthquake shaking
first and then the big tsunami. More detailed study is needed on the compound mechanism andappropriate mitigation measures have to be developed.
Another important feature of the earthquake was the substantial damage in personal properties,
such as houses and lands. Because financial capacity of people that is available for damage mitigation
is limited, those properties have not been well reinforced against earthquake actions. This is in a clear
contrast with public and industrial facilities for which financial support is relatively bigger. It is one of
the future directions for the earthquake engineering to supply support to those individuals that wish toprotect their properties from natural disasters.

WHAT EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERS SHOULD DO
Engineers have to foresee possibilities of new problems. To do this, engineers have to have a goodimagination. At the same time, they have to discriminate absurd things from meaningful imaginations.
This is a very difficult task and can be achieved only by freeing imaginations of traditions. Moreover,
it is certainly important for the sake of the future generations to document and archive real damages
caused by the giant earthquake.
As stated in the preface, the bases of the nation and the community have to be respected. Ashort-term scope is often affected by emotions and may lead to destruction of the community's basicstructure. Engineers need to maintain a long-term scope.
Because the damage mechanism is complicated and related with each other, it is difficult toachieve relevant preparedness against future giant earthquakes. The idea of "Business Continuity Plan(BCP)" that are now getting popular in industries should be applied to the entire community and thenation. BCP intends to minimize the negative effects of natural disasters and help resume the regular
operation as soon as possible after disasters. BCP for the entire community or the nation is extremely
more difficult than that for an individual factory and a company. One of the long-term targets of BCP
study is a development of a computer technology for national risk analysis in which every componentof a nation is accurately computed and analyzed.

MESSAGE TO PEOPLE
The impact of a giant earthquake is beyond human imagination. It is impossible to prevent all kinds ofits negative effects. This is the reason why this appeal stresses that the bases of the prosperity andhappiness of the people and the nation have to be given the first priority during the reconstruction
period. Therefore, something else may not be well respected and people may have to accept
inconvenience after the giant earthquake.
In spite of this negative remark, earthquake engineering still wishes to support those people whowish to solve problems for themselves and protect their own life. Detailed information on risk andsafety measures should be supplied to people in a convenient way. If desired, safety measures and1963tools should be supplied to people at a reasonable cost. The development of IT technologies is helpful
in this regard.

SPECIAL REMARK ON FUTURE OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
The accident of Fukushima 1 Power Plant was unfortunate and very bad. It should not be repeatedagain in future. JAEE shares this kind of idea with people. Because JAEE is a neutral institution,
however, it attempts to call people's attention to the following issues that are important for theprosperity of happiness of the community and people, but have not been stated very much in a publicenvironment.
1. Nuclear power generation can supply energies to industries in a mass scale at relatively low cost.
Then industries can supply jobs to people. This situation is very important and has to berespected.
2. Although the earthquake impact was significant in the power plant, its extent was not yet fatal.
The fatal impact was caused by the unfortunate underestimation of the tsunami effect in theFukushima No.1 Plant. It deserves more attention that other nuclear power plants were able toavoid fatal consequences. Currently, efforts are going on intensely to learn lessons from theinduced damage and reinforce existing nuclear power plants. Attempts to totally demolish nuclear
power plants in spite of those efforts will destroy the bases of the prosperity and happiness,
including people's employment. Those attempts should show to the nation alternative future
scopes on the prosperity and happiness.

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