Playback ’04] “The Changed Land” Awaiting the Miyakejima Islanders after the Lifting of the Evacuation of the Entire Island after Four Years

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will introduce “Miyakejima’s ‘Self-Responsibility’: The Shocking Disclosure of the Island’s ‘Altered State’ Waiting for Return,” which appeared in the September 17, 2004, issue 20 years ago.

The volcanic activity on Miyakejima in the Izu Islands began to increase in June 2000. The largest eruption occurred on August 18, when plumes of smoke reached the stratosphere, and the eruption on August 29 also generated pyroclastic flows. The eruptions have since subsided, but the amount of volcanic gases released reached a level unprecedented anywhere in the world, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government decided to evacuate all residents from the island.

The condemnation was prolonged because the gas continued to erupt after that.’ On July 20, 2004, the then Miyake Village Mayor, Hirano Sukeyasu, finally declared that the island-wide evacuation order would be lifted in February ’05.” September 2004 marked four full years since the evacuation of the entire island. The islanders’ wish to return to their hometowns, where they were born and raised, was finally fulfilled. However, when this reporter visited the island ahead of the islanders, he found a completely changed scene… (Descriptions in parentheses below are taken from previous articles).

Dead trees and grayish-brown earth.

It has been four years since all the islanders left the island, coughing up volcanic gases. Has the island really regenerated since then? The magazine wrote about the current state of the island as follows.

《’》 In the early morning of late August 2008, the liner “Kamearia Maru” arrived at the Port of Miike in the eastern part of the island. It circled the island, which had been cut off by the mudslide. The city road had been completely repaired, and the workers we saw at the roadside were not removing mudslides but tending to the overgrown vegetation. The harbor was teeming with large fish, and wild birds such as pheasants and red-cockaded woodpeckers could be seen around homes. However, once we set foot on the mountain, we found another reality of Miyakejima.

After passing through a stand of dead trees whose bark had peeled off and turned white, a grayish-brown plateau appeared before my eyes. The green peaks of Mt. Oyama, which had been there before the eruption, were gone, and the pastureland, once covered with lush pasture grass, was now only the remnants of the mudslides that had gouged out the land. An erosion control dam on a stream in the northwestern part of the island had filled to its upper limit, and a stack of fallen trees on top of it seemed to have barely held back the outflow.

Turning to the west side of the island, I smell a pungent odor and can’t stop coughing. Suddenly, I looked up at Mt. Oyama and saw blue-white volcanic gases coming down the mountain. The Miyake High School grounds in the southeastern part of the island were thickly overgrown with vegetation, a testament to the four years that had passed.

Volcanic gases had finally dropped below 10,000 tons per day on July 20, but were still gushing out. The government, which decided to lift the evacuation order, stated that the islanders would return to the island at their own risk. On the other hand, however, the government also demanded that the islanders vacate the metropolitan housing where they are currently living within three months after the “evacuation order” was lifted in February 2005. One of the islanders had the following to say.

《”The government says that returning to the island is one’s own responsibility, but the question on the questionnaire regarding returning to the island was a choice between two options: whether or not one was prepared to take the risk and return home. There are islanders who want to return but can’t because of medical or educational problems, and it’s not that simple. Also, if the gas is worse than expected and they can no longer live on the island, how well will the government take care of them? What the islanders want most right now is information about these concerns.

There is a mountain of issues that need to be addressed in order to return to the islands, such as medical care, education, and employment issues. Although the amount of gas is decreasing, there is no way to know whether reconstruction will progress on the island where the gas continues to emanate. The islanders are faced with a difficult decision.

More than half of the younger generation did not return to the island.

Although the long-awaited lifting of the evacuation order was finally completed, it seems that the islanders had mixed feelings. As the article comments, some islanders had established their own livelihoods in the four years and five months since the evacuation, while others had breathing problems that prevented them from returning to the island where volcanic gases were emitted. In particular, many families with children attending elementary, junior high, and high schools remained at their evacuation sites.’ By August 2005, only 2,500 residents had returned to the island, about two-thirds of the number before the evacuation. In particular, more than half of the younger generation did not return.

In June 2003, the eruption warning level was lowered to 1 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and entry restrictions were lifted, including those near the crater. Today, daily life on the island has completely returned to normal. The island’s current population of about 2,000 people has been reduced due to the low birthrate, aging population, and depopulation, but the unique scenery created by the volcano and other natural blessings make the island a popular tourist destination, especially for eco-tourism.

However, Miyakejima, which is a volcano that covers the entire island, has been erupting every 20 to 60 years since ancient times. Especially since the Showa period (1926-1989), the eruption cycle has been about 20 years. Eruptions are not a story of the past.