SEEDS Asia English website

United Nations General Assembly designated 5th November as “World Tsunami Awareness Day” in 2015. The idea for the day originated from an incident when a tsunami struck a village along Japan’s Pacific coast during the Ansei-Nankai earthquake on 5th November, 1854. A resident of the village, Goryo Hamaguchi, on assuming the approaching tsunami, lit a fire using stacks of drying rice straw so that other residents could be made aware of the tsunami and escape to higher ground. This episode is called “Inamura no Hi” or Fire of the Rice Sheaves.
SEEDS Asia featured this story in learning materials used in the Mobile Knowledge Resource Centre (MKRC) in Myanmar in 2009. With the support of YAMASA Corporation, a soy sauce manufacturing company, a picture-story show was developed and utilized as a tool to promote tsunami awareness. SEEDS Asia found that kids who visited the MKRC were very engrossed listening to the story, and were impressed by Mr. Hamaguchi’s efforts in protecting his fellow residents and leading subsequent disaster recovery. The picture-story show of “Inamura no Hi” is actually one of the most popular of the learning materials used in the MKRC. The audiences of the show often say “I want to become like Mr. Hamaguchi.”
A class at school, a training session, a book or even a small article that one accidentally encounters could grow into powerful knowledge to help protect their loved ones and the local community. SEEDS Asia will always keep this in mind and continue to promote tsunami awareness.