Japan: Learning Lessons from Earthquakes

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from Japan, the USA, the Thailand-Myanmar border, Barbuda and Guinea-Bissau.

The earthquake which shook Japan on New Year's Day brought considerable damage to the mostly-rural Noto peninsula. One noticeable pattern amidst the destruction was how much more robust modern buildings had proved to be over older, wooden homes. Jean Mackenzie reflects on Japan's evolving ability to cope with earthquakes.

Every four years, the citizens of Iowa welcome a political circus to town - as national and international media, political grandees and pollsters flood in to cover the Iowa caucuses. Justin Webb explains how and why Iowa has such a special role in the electoral process.

Although the world's attention may have shifted away from Myanmar's internal conflict, there are still several serious regional insurgencies raging against its ruling military regime. This fighting causes casualties - many of whom now have to seek health care outside Myanmar. after hospitals were targeted. Rebecca Root reports from a clinic on the Thailand-Myanmar border trying to treat Myanmar's sick and wounded.

The tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda is beautiful and relatively undeveloped - but for how long? Caroline Bayley visited this idyllic spot to delve into a local dispute over a new airstrip and resort complex which could change its ecosystem and culture for ever.

Despite their scruffy appearance and lack of cuteness, vultures have value - particularly in West Africa. They can help fight disease - and some people in Guinea Bissau believe their body parts work as cures. Sam Bradpiece explains why Guinea Bissau's government has moved to protect them.

Producer: Polly Hope Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.0	Today the American Midwest gets its turn in the national spotlight
0:09.5	as the Iowa Caucus comes to town. What does it promise for the presidential hopefuls?
0:15.9	How casualties of the conflict in Myanmar are making their way to clinics in Thailand.
0:22.1	There's a planning dispute with a difference on the tiny Caribbean
0:25.6	island of Barbuda over its new airstrip and gleaming resort complexes, and with its
0:32.0	scrawny pink neck and scruffy feathers, the hooded vulture might seem a difficult
0:37.7	creature to love. But in Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa, it's so highly prized that the government has to give it special protection.
0:46.0	But first to Japan and the aftermath of the earthquake which struck on New Year's Day.
0:52.0	More than 200 people died, many more, are still missing.
0:56.0	Work is still going on to find them and to clear the wreckage,
1:00.0	despite bitter cold, multiple landslides and snowfall. This was the largest earthquake in
1:06.2	Japan since the 2011 events which damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant and claimed
1:12.3	20,000 lives and it was the largest earthquake
1:16.1	ever recorded on the Noto Peninsula on the Central Island of Honshu where
1:21.6	emergency teams are still discovering the full scale of the destruction.
1:26.0	Gene Mackenzie was on the scene in one of the worst hit cities, Wajima.
1:31.0	As we bumped and wound our way through ditches and across crevices, a menacing alarm
1:36.6	screeched from our phones. Warning, earthquake incoming. Second later, our car began to shake.
1:45.0	This was one of hundreds of aftershocks that had people darting in and out of their homes.
1:50.0	Japan, with its unfortunate location on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire, has learnt to live with earthquakes.
1:57.0	The authorities are diligent at alerting citizens to the next tremor.
	...

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