Participants of China Seismic Building Course visited the tsunami disaster sites of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in Iwate Prefecture during 10-11 July. In the devasted area by the tsunami, cleanup work of debris is still undertaken even after 4 months from the disaster. Here are some

comments from the participants:

"We are impressed by the recovery effort of Japanese people in ordered way after such a tragic event." "Although it is not easy to design buildings to withstand any natural disaster, we must think about the better buildings to protect human lives." "We thank you for this great opportunity to see the real disaster."

Taiki SAITO

Chief Research Engineer, IISEE

We (5 participants of the 2010-2011 Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Course) visited some coastal areas in Tohoku region, where tsunamis generated from the 2011 off the coast of Pacific earthquake (M9.0) caused serious damages. On the first day, we had a lecture at DCRC of Tohoku Univ. and then visited

Sendai plain area to observe the tsunami deposits (Photo 1) by the 2011 Tohoku and 869 Jogan earthquakes. Next day, we visited Onagawa town (Photo 2), through Matsushima and Ishinomaki. In Onagawa, some RC buildings felt down and/or moved by the attack of tsunami. On the third day, we visited Rikuzentakata, Ofunato (Photo 3) and Kamaishi. In Kamaishi, we inspected the breakwater (Photo 4) at the bay mouth with guidance by Kamaishi Port Office. The breakwater was partially broken by the 2011 tsunami but worked to reduce the tsunami energy.

Yushiro FUJII

Senior Research Scientist, IISEE

An investigation of demand for JICA training courses will be dispatched (in early August 2011) after the selection of candidate courses for investigation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JICA considering balance of proposed field and budgetary frame of the next year. Particularly, this year is

important for the IISEE training course of BRI, since the course will be reviewed every three years.

We are working hard to ask diplomat officials of Japanese Embassy in each country and JICA experts to send supporting messages for the training courses of IISEE, I’d like to ask you to send messages to the Japanese Embassy or JICA country office on the support of continuous training at IISEE. You may have information of this investigation if you are regarded as the related person of this matter.

Hajime KUROSAWA

Head of Administration Division, IISEE

The largest aftershock of the Off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake after the day of March 11, 2011 occurred on July 10, 2011 at 9:57 AM (Japanese time) The location of epicenter: 38°N 143.5°E (JMA). Depth: 34 km (JMA) and Magnitude: 7.3 (JMA). Though the maximum intensity of the ground was not so strong (Japanese intensity IV), quake was observed in broad area of east Japan.

The strong motion observation system of Building Research Institute (BRI) recorded many strong motions as shown in the web-site below;

http://smo.kenken.go.jp/201107100957 (prepared by Dr. Kashima of IISEE, BRI)

Shoichi ANDO

Director, IISEE