Daily life in a bombing zone
“Missile launched. It appears a missile has been launched. Please evacuate to a sturdy building or underground,” the loudspeaker blared over the town, silencing the children who had been playing in the schoolyard and drowning out the sound of the water trickling alongside the rice paddies.
Older residents streamed into the concrete community centre, while the children at the neighbouring elementary school hit the ground outside where they were playing, some covering their heads.
Sakata, a sleepy city of 100,000 on Japan’s northwestern coast, sits just 1,070 kilometres across the sea from North Korea, and many of the missiles that Kim Jong Un’s regime has been launching have landed not far from this coast, within Japan’s exclusive economic zone. While Kim has repeatedly stated that he wants an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, and while he has made observable progress toward that goal, his rocket scientists are not there yet.
North Korea is, however, able to hit Japan. One of the new missiles that North Korea fired last month had a technical range of 4,500 kilometres, easily putting all of Japan and even the U.S. territory of Guam within reach. (North Korea fired a missile over Japan in 1998.)
That has residents here worrying for the squid fishermen who ply this coast — and for themselves.
“Sakata faces the Sea of Japan, so it’s important to think about how to protect ourselves in case of an incoming North Korean missile,” Itaru Maruyama, the mayor of Sakata, said after the city held its first missile preparedness drill.
Japanese are used to drills for earthquakes and tsunamis, but the prime minister’s office issued new “actions to protect yourself” guidelines in April, including instructions on how to respond if a North Korean ballistic missile is heading toward Japan. It marked the first time since the end of the Second World War that the Japanese government has instructed citizens on what to do if they come under enemy attack. The advice is limited to basically going inside or underground — there’s not much else people can do, especially not since they would have only minutes to do it.
In Tokyo, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party presented the prime minister with a plan to protect people from North Korean missiles. Among other things, it called for building shelters and evacuating Japanese citizens living in South Korea.
“With North Korea continuing to ignore the international community and launching missiles, we must do everything we can to protect the public,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in response.
The threat of North Korea feels very real on this coast, and several regional authorities have organized similar practices.
About 400 residents took part in the exercise in Sakata, practising what to do if satellites detect a ballistic missile launched from “Country X” flying toward Japan. In addition to triggering cellphone alarms, alerts will blare from loudspeakers already used for earthquake and tsunami warnings.
Residents would have only minutes to evacuate to safety because the missile would take only about 10 minutes after launch to reach Japan.