5:15 PM - 6:45 PM
[MZZ46-P07] From disaster prevention education using natural disaster monuments to geoparks
Keywords:natural disaster monuments, disaster prevention education, geoparks
Mount Azuma is located approximately 20km west of the Fukushima city center.
This volcano erupted in 1893 (Meiji 26), and two volcano researchers were hit by volcanic blocks and died, and a memorial monument (hereinafter referred to as A) is located near the mountain trail.
Last August, a local people from this area told me that there was a cenotaph for the two victims (hereinafter referred to as B) in Shinobuyama Park in the center of the city.
It takes about 1 hour to get to A from Fukushima city center, but we can access to B in much short time. Therefore, we held on-site classes at Fukushima City's No. 4 Elementary School and No. 4 Junior High School, which school district is B.
After an hour of lecture during the class held in November, students and I went to the cenotaph and gave an explanation there.
``You all listened to the story of Mt. Azuma in class earlier, so you understand the meaning of this memorial,'' I said, and students nodded.
``How should I tell adults who don't know about the eruption of Mt. Azuma about the disaster?'' I asked, but no one answered.
So, I showed them a plan for a signboard that included the photos and diagrams that we used in the previous class, and said, ``If we had a signboard like this, everyone would be able to understand it,'' then they agreed.
In December, I held an on-site class at a junior high school, but we were not able to visit the cenotaph. Since then, I talk about B several times at conference of Mt. Azuma in Fukushima City.
Currently, we are making two efforts at Fukushima City Hall. One is to put an explanatory signboard up near B. The other option is to apply to have these memorials registered as natural disaster heritage monuments by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan.
Once these memorials listed online, you can learn about past disasters without visiting the site by searching for Mt. Shinobu on the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan's internet map, finding the natural disaster legend monument symbol, and just clicking on it.
Activities like this to learn about the land are commonly held in geoparks. I would like to strongly encourage Fukushima City, where Mt. Azuma is located, to become a geopark, using Mt. Bandai Geopark as a reference.
This volcano erupted in 1893 (Meiji 26), and two volcano researchers were hit by volcanic blocks and died, and a memorial monument (hereinafter referred to as A) is located near the mountain trail.
Last August, a local people from this area told me that there was a cenotaph for the two victims (hereinafter referred to as B) in Shinobuyama Park in the center of the city.
It takes about 1 hour to get to A from Fukushima city center, but we can access to B in much short time. Therefore, we held on-site classes at Fukushima City's No. 4 Elementary School and No. 4 Junior High School, which school district is B.
After an hour of lecture during the class held in November, students and I went to the cenotaph and gave an explanation there.
``You all listened to the story of Mt. Azuma in class earlier, so you understand the meaning of this memorial,'' I said, and students nodded.
``How should I tell adults who don't know about the eruption of Mt. Azuma about the disaster?'' I asked, but no one answered.
So, I showed them a plan for a signboard that included the photos and diagrams that we used in the previous class, and said, ``If we had a signboard like this, everyone would be able to understand it,'' then they agreed.
In December, I held an on-site class at a junior high school, but we were not able to visit the cenotaph. Since then, I talk about B several times at conference of Mt. Azuma in Fukushima City.
Currently, we are making two efforts at Fukushima City Hall. One is to put an explanatory signboard up near B. The other option is to apply to have these memorials registered as natural disaster heritage monuments by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan.
Once these memorials listed online, you can learn about past disasters without visiting the site by searching for Mt. Shinobu on the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan's internet map, finding the natural disaster legend monument symbol, and just clicking on it.
Activities like this to learn about the land are commonly held in geoparks. I would like to strongly encourage Fukushima City, where Mt. Azuma is located, to become a geopark, using Mt. Bandai Geopark as a reference.