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© unknownCautionary tale … Okushiri Island devastated by an earthquake in 1993 has become a concrete fortress.
Okushiri, Japan - On the night of July 12, 1993, the remote island of Okushiri was ripped apart by a huge earthquake and tsunami that now seem an eerie harbinger of the much larger disaster that struck north-eastern Japan in March last year.

Islanders still recall with horror how a wall of frothing black water raced out of the darkness to consume entire communities, leaving almost 200 people dead.

In the five years that followed, the Japanese government rebuilt the island, erecting 10.7-metre concrete walls on long stretches of its coast, making it look more like a fortress than a fishing outpost. The $1 billion worth of construction projects included not only the hefty wave defences but entire neighbourhoods built on higher ground, with a few flourishes, like a futuristic $13.8 million tsunami memorial hall featuring a stained glass panel for each victim.

But as Japan begins a decade-long $277 billion reconstruction of the north-east coast, Okushiri has become a cautionary tale. Instead of restoring the island to its vibrant past, many residents say, the $1 billion spending spree may have helped kill its revival.

The rebuilding did bring a surge of well-paying construction jobs, residents said. But that was the problem. The remaining young people became used to higher salaries and refused to return to the hard life of fishing leaving the island to earn more money elsewhere.

The number of islanders has fallen faster than in other rural areas, dwindling to 3160 last year from 4679 in 1993.

Takami Shinmura, 58, the mayor of Okushiri's sole township, which bears the same name said they regretted not having invested more of the reconstruction money in new industries to keep the young people.

Since the tsunami in March last year, hundreds of officials from local governments in the affected areas have descended on Okushiri to learn lessons from its reconstruction.

The fishing port of Aonae has a $32 million tsunami refuge that can hold 2000 people, three times Aonae's population.

The head of Aonae's fishing co-operative, Yasumitsu Watanabe, said it had been shortsighted to think that the island could go back to its original, fishing-based economy. Even before the disaster, catches were declining from overfishing and global warming. The abalone, the island's cash shellfish, never recovered from the tsunami, which damaged their habitat in shallow waters. The number of fishermen on the island has dropped to less than 200 from about 750 at the time of the tsunami.

Mr Watanabe said he wished the island had built sheltered coves where fish or shellfish could be farmed. Others suggested Okushiri could have used the government money to build factories to process locally caught fish, which are now shipped elsewhere.

Yutaka Okada, an economist at the Mizuho Research Institute, said Japan might fare better if it gave lump sums to the latest tsunami victims instead of rebuilding the north-east.

Source: The New York Times