Million Japanese brace for the 'Big One'
Pastor Dale Morgan
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Friday September 1, 1:01 PM
*Million Japanese brace for the 'Big One'*
Nearly one million people across Japan have taken part in drills to
prepare for a major earthquake, in an annual exercise joined for the
first time by US and South Korean authorities.
The drills took place on the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto
earthquake, which left more than 142,000 people dead or unaccounted for
in the Tokyo region.
Japan endures about 20 percent of the world's major earthquakes and
lives in constant fear of the "Big One." The archipelago has been hit by
three moderate tremors in the past two days.
Some 800,000 people including police, firefighters, troops and local
volunteers on Friday practiced their response to a major earthquake
registering 7.3 on the Richter scale.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, sporting a blue-gray workman's tunic,
held a mock press conference.
"Due to the quake which occurred at 7:15 am, we've received reports that
already many people were injured or died," Koizumi said.
"The government has set up an emergency counterdisaster center and
ministers are now dealing with the initial response," he said.
Koizumi linked by a teleconference with Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara
and Bank of Japan Toshihiko Fukui on ways to rescue people and keep
running the capital of the world's second largest economy.
A study by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in March said a
7.3-magnitude earthquake would kill 5,600 people and damage 440,000
buildings, despite Japan's requirements that all construction be
resistant to tremors.
The US military took part in the nationwide drills for the first time,
with helicopters from Yokota air base in Tokyo ferrying people and
relief materials.
The Seoul fire department also sent a delegation which worked jointly
with its Tokyo counterparts to rescue people from fallen buildings.
Tokyo was jolted Thursday by a 4.8-magnitude quake, which was followed
an hour later by a moderate tremor in the Russian-ruled Kuril islands
off northern Japan.
On Friday, a quake registering 5.7 on the Richter scale struck Japan's
southern Okinawa island chain. None of the quakes caused injuries or
damage.