UN World Tsunami Summit 2019

In its fourth year of hosting the summit, the Japan government, the Board of Education and the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) sector prepared the trip of a lifetime. Filled with study tours given by students on Okushiri Island who personally felt the direct impact of two terribly devastating tsunamis (1993 and 2011) that took the lives of many of their friends and families, as well as by students at Kutchan Agricultural High School where the village and region's sustainability is routinely tested as it is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity, we were given the opportunity to gain valuable insight into what "preparedness" actually means. These study tours proved to be invaluable to our learning as they included experts in the fields of disaster prevention, community leaders and city governors or mayors, seismologists, and local high school students who shared their own personal connections to their home, their people and their experience with disaster. Anyone that has been affected or has taken on the responsibility of helping to mitigate disaster or provide aid in relief efforts was on board throughout the whole trip to guide our learning. While we had prepared extensively for this summit back at home, it became clear very quickly that learning about Hawaii's prevention plans and being able to share it intelligently with others, while important, made up a very small part of the reason we were here. In fact, while it took us months to prepare for this summit, the truth is that there are still many places -- years after having been struck -- that are still recovering. Through our study tours, guided museum lectures, activities with the locals and discussions with other countries, we learned that disaster preparedness is not just about knowing what supplies your family needs and having a personal action plan. It's about understanding context. Because every community is different and because the world today is different than the world tomorrow, "preparedness" remains a fluid, dynamic and complex concept that must be defined locally and consistently reviewed by entire communities for it to truly be the beacon of hope we need it to be. Being that our surveys and conversations with our local community back in June highlighted a general malaise or ignorance, we immediately felt responsible for absorbing as much as we could about the different ways people around the world prepare, despite the variety of challenges they face.

To paraphrase the words of Anna Wood, who was asked to speak in Okushiri in front of 22 countries of her immediate experience just 2 days after arriving, she said natural disasters should be seen as the great equalizer and we must do all we can to learn from those whose environments, economies, and societies have been deeply affected. 

In one region near the foothills of Mt. Usu, the people have had such a long history of volcanic eruption, that they've now learned how to "listen" to the mountain and what steps to take once it starts talking. Of course, the skill of being able to listen, also includes being able to communicate that information across disciplines, generations, competence levels and other factors that might hinder the acquisition of knowledge and its application. During one of their more recent seismic events, an entire community made up of over 200 families living in a mainly agricultural town, was able to complete a full evacuation well before their town, home and farms were taken away. While this might be considered a small town with obvious differences that separate us, such as access to resources, technology and general community infrastructure and development, it easily represents one of our neighborhoods back home, full of people we love and places that are extremely important to us and our personal and shared histories. The point is that regardless of where we live the work we do to prepare for disasters must be done by the people in each community and alongside experts in a multitude of fields as well as people who have experience in disaster and recovery. We were beyond grateful for the opportunities to listen and learn from all the amazing individuals doing exceptional work here in Hokkaido and all around Japan.

After 5 days of touring around Hokkaido, meeting wonderful people and taking in the countryside and the many stories it had to tell, day 1 of the summit finally came and we all felt more prepared than ever to represent our island community and country, and finally get to work. Participating countries were split up into breakout groups distinguished by themes. Our group, J, which consisted of schools from Vanuatu, Micronesia, South Korea and schools from across Japan, had the task of building an action plan communities could use to build back better following natural disasters. The groups worked for over 6 hours to develop a plan that answered the needs of all our represented countries and prepared to share it at day 2 of the summit with the rest of the country delegates who had their own themed workshops. In the workshop, our US delegation was broken up into various groups and took leadership roles in their respective teams immediately to help guide and mediate discussion and planning. Towards the end of their workshop on the first day, Mio Fujimoto, Derya Hanusz-Soguk and May Song took on the task of synthesizing the work of 36 representatives, encouraging further dialogue and finalizing an action plan that everyone could get behind. It was a wonderful day of collaboration that gave everyone an opportunity to share their voice. Day 1 of the summit was perfectly concluded with a beautiful evening of cultural performances by a few of the participating countries and the great opportunity to put our work aside and enjoy each other's company and the worldly relationships we had so quickly formed.