Clancey

So, as not being a Japanese citizen, I am not well attuned to the history or developments often taught in schools, however, after reading portions of Clancey's Earthquake Nation, I have a hard time believing that we weren't taught any of this in school. The way the Nobi earthquake is described, it is not only a major turning point in the Japanese technology, but world technology. Yet, very little has ever been mentioned about it in the course of my education, particularly geography or science units concerning natural phenomenon. I found the part about how they first began to develop means of determining when an earthquake would occur to be the most fascinating. It say that it began in the Meiji era, so when some western influence began to infiltrate. Yet, they looked at all aspects, scientific, meteorological and superstitious to make determinations. They discuss, what were potential sign before the quake such as unusual climate changes the magnetism and animal behavior. The committee formed, is likely one of the first of its kind, having to do with human and natural resources, first formulated during this era of change.

Most impressively the technology they began to produce as a result, such as a seismograph, seems well ahead of its time. Not only that, but there is this discovery of the Pagodas superior construction, thus indicating that pre-modern builders had some knowledge of how to make a structure better withstand quakes.  This is also when a scale separate from the richter scale used in most western locations, was developed. In essence the Nobi earthquake opened up the field of Seismology for further research and development and the eventual creation of modern day tools used to understand and predict earthquakes in Japan.