Behind the Scenes / Public awareness key to emergency missile drills by Motoshi Sakata

Behind the Scenes / Public awareness key to emergency missile drills by Motoshi Sakata

Topic: Behind the Scenes / Public awareness key to emergency missile drills

Writter: Motoshi Sakata

Publish Date: Monday, 18 December 2017

Published on : The Japan News

Behind the Scenes / Public awareness key to emergency missile drills

The first drill conducted under the scenario of a ballistic missile — purportedly from North Korea — landing on Japanese territory and prompting the government to issue an evacuation directive based on the Civil Protection Law (see below) was held in Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Nov. 22.

With tensions rising on the Korean Peninsula, efforts are under way in various areas for residents to conduct evacuation drills. However, many hurdles remain in the push to amass practical know-how for contingencies.

SDF, prefectural forces deployed

A sharp sound pierced the wind, followed by the roar of what sounded like an impact. White smoke billowed into the air from around a mock version of an unexploded ballistic missile warhead placed to look as though it had burrowed into the ground.

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  The Yomiuri Shimbun

  Firefighters and Self-Defense Forces personnel rescue a dummy representing an injured person during the drill.

The drill, which took place at Unzen’s Taira port, opened with the deployment of prefectural and Self Defense Forces helicopters overhead, after which a series of large SDF vehicles arrived on scene. Rifle-carrying SDF personnel began to spill out of the vehicles. Wearing protective masks, they paired off and edged toward the warhead from the windward side, with chemical-warfare-agent detectors in hand.

Based on the scenario that chemical agents were undetected but hydrazine — a toxic substance used in missile fuel — was scattered about the area, firefighters pumped water from a fire truck to reduce the presumed toxicity.

Rescue workers subsequently cut open a collapsed house’s veneered roof with chainsaws to rescue a dummy representing a badly injured resident inside, then transported the victim to a nearby hospital in an SDF helicopter.

The SDF then began to dispose of the unexploded ordnance. With the risk of an explosion in mind, the government issued an evacuation directive based on the Civil Protection Law for all areas within a 500-meter radius of the missile.

City officials escorted residents from prefabricated buildings meant to resemble residential homes. The residents subsequently evacuated to a nearby facility.

Hiroyuki Suenaga, the Cabinet Office Secretariat Councillor in charge of civil protection, evaluated the drill positively, saying: “Most of the [missile impact and evacuation directive] efforts were done for the first time. It is important to build up experience in preparation for a contingency.”

Drills still evolving

The central government and municipal governments have jointly organized drills in preparation for nationwide contingencies since 2005, but until last year their focus was predominantly on counterterrorism measures. A drill in Oga, Akita Prefecture, in March marked the start of full-fledged drills to prepare for ballistic missile launches.

The central government and local governments have since collaborated to organize missile-related drills in 22 municipalities in 20 prefectures. However, all were carried out on the assumption a missile was flying over the area. The drills were limited to such measures as voluntary evacuations in response to receiving a warning from the J-Alert nationwide instantaneous warning system. A senior government official said: “Full-fledged drills have just begun. Municipal governments are feeling a growing sense of crisis, and more practical drills will likely increase in the future.”

And yet, only about 30 residents participated in the Unzen drill. The drill was predominantly aimed at ensuring proper responses by administrative bodies such as local government, police, fire departments and the SDF. Participants in previous drills were also limited to about 700-800 participants at most because mobilizing large numbers of residents imposes a burden on a municipality. Public awareness of such drills is undeniably lower than that of regular disaster drills held almost every year.

Worries over fanning fears

Moreover, drills have yet to be sufficiently conducted in and around large cities — likely targets if North Korea were to conduct missile attacks — or important facilities such as U.S. military bases and nuclear power plants.

A Tokyo metropolitan government official cautioned: “Many people temporarily stay [in Tokyo] for business or sightseeing, making it difficult to sufficiently provide information in advance. The sound of a J-Alert would prompt great confusion, even if we explicitly made clear it was a ‘drill.’”

An official in Okinawa Prefecture, home to U.S. military bases, was also reluctant. “Drills would cause excessive anxiety among residents, who might believe they are actually being targeted,” the official said.

The Civil Protection Law stipulates that municipal governments are responsible for providing residents with evacuation guidance, and the government requires municipalities to make efforts to prepare manuals for evacuation.

Nevertheless, as of April, only 885 out of the 1,741 municipalities, or 51 percent, were developing or had already created a manual. The delay appears to have resulted from a lack of manpower and know-how. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency wants local governments to speed up their responses. “It’s too late to think about [disaster responses] after a missile has been launched,” an agency official said.

Countless scenarios are possible during an emergency and would likely involve public transportation, commercial facilities and others. A Cabinet Secretariat official said: “The government wants to test out various scenarios. But the only way at the moment is for municipal governments to conduct a series of drills within their capacities.”

Damage could be minimized through voluntary evacuation

The government is to issue an evacuation directive based on the Civil Protection Law only if it recognizes an armed attack or similar emergency situation, including a contingency on the Korean Peninsula or a ballistic missile hitting Japan.

In the case of a ballistic missile striking Japan during peacetime, a key to minimizing damage is to voluntarily evacuate based on J-Alert information.

North Korea has repeatedly test-launched ballistic missiles this year. The J-Alert system was set off when missiles passed over Japan on Aug. 29 and Sept. 15.

Initially, the phrase “Please evacuate to a sturdy building or basement” was broadcast via J-Alert, but that was later revised to “Please evacuate to a building or basement” in response to protests that there were no sturdy buildings.

The Cabinet Secretariat’s “Civil Protection Portal Site” even added a function that displays whether evacuation facilities designated by prefectures are built of concrete. “The operation of J-Alert needs to be constantly reviewed so that people can protect themselves by evacuating voluntarily,” a government official emphasized.

If the government recognizes an armed attack or similar situation and its “Task Force for Armed Attack Situations, etc.,” headed by the prime minister, deems evacuation necessary, the prime minister then issues an evacuation directive to relevant prefectures. Governors subsequently issue their evacuation directives, and municipalities guide and evacuate residents to places outside the affected areas.

A possible scenario involving the issuance of evacuation directives would be one in which a missile has landed with an unexploded warhead that runs the risk of discharging, as was assumed in the latest drill in Unzen. Other possible scenarios include those in which 1) toxic material could leak from biological and chemical arms installed on the warheads of missiles that have landed; and 2) North Korea has fired a missile that has landed in an area it previously specified, and is preparing to launch another missile toward another specified location.

But evacuation directives are, in principle, supposed to be issued for limited areas within a municipality. In case of an emergency, there could be situations in which evacuation directives must be issued across a wide area straddling a whole prefecture or multiple prefectures. However, a Cabinet Secretariat official said, “[Such widely covered directives] are unprecedented, and it is difficult to make specific assumptions.”

■The Civil Protection Law

A law stipulating the roles of the central government and municipalities in evacuations, relief efforts and other measures to prevent damage from spreading in the case of an armed attack or large-scale terrorist attack. It was enacted in 2004 during the Koizumi administration.