is a
town located in
Miyagi Prefecture,
Japan. , the town had an estimated
population of 6,319, and a
population density of 97 persons per km
2 in 3,110 households. The total area of the town is .
Geography
Onagawa is located on the rugged
Sanriku Coast of north-central Miyagi Prefecture, with the
Kitakami Mountains to the west and the city of Ishinomaki to the east, south and north. Much of the town is within the borders of the
Sanriku Fukkō National Park
(''lit''. "Sanriku Reconstruction National Park") is a national park extending along the Sanriku Coast of Japan from Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture through Iwate Prefecture to Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture. The national park was created on 24 ...
. Onagawa is a natural deep water port, located at the intersection of two major ocean currents and noted for its
commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often p ...
industry. Located nearby on the southern side of Onagawa Bay is the
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant.
Neighboring municipalities
Miyagi Prefecture
*
Ishinomaki
Climate
Onagawa has a
humid climate (
Köppen climate classification ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Onagawa is 11.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1213 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 23.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around -0.1 °C.
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Onagawa has declined rapidly over the past 60 years.
History
The area of present-day Onagawa was part of ancient
Mutsu Province, and has been settled since at least the
Jōmon period
The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...
by the
Emishi people. During later portion of the
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japane ...
, the area was ruled by the
Northern Fujiwara. During the
Sengoku period, the area was contested by various
samurai clans before the area came under the control of the
Date clan
The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5.
History
The Date family was founded ...
of
Sendai Domain during the
Edo period, under the
Tokugawa shogunate.
The village of Onagawa was established on 1 June 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system.
The port of Onagawa, with its deep and sheltered harbor, has long been important both commercially and militarily. The port was hit by an
air raid on 9 August 1945, which sank several ships during the closing days of
World War II. A memorial to Canadian Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot
Robert Hampton Gray
Robert Hampton "Hammy" Gray, , RCNVR (November 2, 1917 – August 9, 1945) was a Canadian naval officer, pilot, and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC) during World War II, one of only two members of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm to have been ...
who died in the attack, was unveiled in the town in 1989.
[女川湾で戦死 カナダ軍大尉を追悼 , 河北新報オンラインニュース]
Onagawa was raised to town status on 1 April 1956.
2011 earthquake and tsunami
Onagawa was one of the most heavily damaged communities by the 11 March
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minut ...
. The tsunami reached in excess of in height and swept inland, claiming 827 lives and destroying 70% of the buildings in the town. At least 12 of the town's 25 designated evacuation sites were inundated by the tsunami. The town's hospital located on a hill was extensively flooded on the first floor at the maximum recorded wave height of 18 meters. Six reinforced concrete buildings in the town of up to 4 stories in height were overturned by the force of the surging water and debris and
Onagawa Station
is a railway station in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).
Lines
Onagawa Station is a terminal station on the Ishinomaki Line, located 44.9 kilometers from the opposing terminus of ...
and its nearby railway tracks were also destroyed.
In an incident widely reported in the Chinese media, Mitsuru Sato, managing director of Sato Suisan, a fish processing company in the town, gave his life ensuring that all the firm's workers, including 20 female Chinese resident trainees, had evacuated safely to higher ground.
Whereas the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered
insufficient cooling in the wake of the tsunami which led to three
nuclear meltdown
A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internatio ...
s and the
release of radioactive material, the Onagawa nuclear generation facility, much closer to the earthquake epicenter, survived the earthquake without any significant damage and served as an emergency refuge for the local community.
The town had previously been hit by tsunami including that caused by the
1960 Valdivia earthquake
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami ( es, link=no, Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (''Gran terremoto de Chile'') on 22 May 1960 was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4– ...
, although it had received comparatively less impact from tsunami in the aftermath of the
1896
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers.
* January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
* January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...
and
1933
Events
January
* January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
* January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...
Sanriku earthquakes.
Seismologists note that the deep inlets and bays of the nearby
ria coastline have the potential to amplify the destructiveness of tsunami waves. Tsunami mitigation structures, warning systems and evacuation training have long been a feature of the town.
Post tsunami reconstruction
The local community's reconstruction efforts, in many cases led by Onagawa private sector business leaders, have outpaced many larger towns impacted by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Within days of the disaster privately owned construction machinery were used to clear roads, a wholesale fish market was relaunched on 1 April and a reconstruction advisory board was formed shortly thereafter. In the aftermath of the tsunami local residents successfully established small scale grocery stores and retail food facilities in a series of temporary market structures.
On 21 March 2015 the reconstructed Onagawa Station reopened marking the restoration of the entire Ishinomaki Line. The new station building features an integrated community center and public bathing facility on the upper floors.
Serving both the needs of the local community and attracting out of town visitors, a pedestrianized shopping promenade called Seapal Pia was opened in December 2015.
Five years after the tsunami many Onagawa residents continue to live in short-term temporary accommodation. After extensive landscaping, new residential housing is being relocated at higher elevations on nearby hillsides and leftover soil is being used to raise industrial and commercial sections closer to the water an average of above sea level.
Reconstruction has been supported both by central government funding and a number of private individuals and foundations including:
* The Qatar Friendship Fund, which provided US$24 million for the design and construction of a new fish processing and refrigerated storage facility.
*
Pritzker Architecture Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
winner
Shigeru Ban, and the Voluntary Architects' Network, provided designs both for temporary housing shelters in the town as well as the rebuilt
Onagawa Station
is a railway station in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).
Lines
Onagawa Station is a terminal station on the Ishinomaki Line, located 44.9 kilometers from the opposing terminus of ...
building.
Government
Onagawa Town Hall
Onagawa has a
mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a
unicameral town council of 12 members. Onagawa, together with the city of Ishinomaki, contributes five seats to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the town is part of
Miyagi 5th district of the
lower house of the
Diet of Japan.
Economy
The economy of Onagawa is largely based on
commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often p ...
. The town acts as a processing and distribution hub for variety of sea foods, but is particularly known for
coho salmon
The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientif ...
,
pacific saury
The Pacific saury (''Cololabis saira'') is a member of the family Scomberesocidae. Saury is a seafood in several East Asian cuisines and is also known by the name mackerel pike.
Biology
Saury is a fish with a small mouth, an elongated body ...
and the cultivation of
oysters
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...
. The
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, once a major source of income for the town, has remained offline since the 2011 earthquake.
Education
Onagawa has one public elementary school and one public junior high school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school. The old high school (Miyagi Prefecture Onagawa High School
) was closed in 2014 as it only had 47 students.
Transportation
Railway
JR East
*
Ishinomaki Line
** -
Highway
*
Ferry
*
Kinkasan
, native_name_link =
, image_caption = View from Oshika Peninsula
, image_size =
, locator_map =
, map_custom =
, nickname =
, location = Pacific Ocean
, coordinates =
, archipelago = Oshik ...
Ferry
Local attractions
The town takes pride in the fact that it still has beaches with "
squeaking sand", which have become rare in Japan due to human induced environmental changes.
Notable people from Onagawa
*
Masatoshi Nakamura
is a Japanese actor/singer from Onagawa, Miyagi. He graduated from Keio University.
Nakamura joined the Bungakuza theater troupe in 1973 and made his television debut in 1974 with "Warera Seishun. Masatoshi made his film debut with "Fureai" in t ...
, actor
Official profile
Retrieved 7 September 2013.
References
External links
Official Website
{{Authority control
Towns in Miyagi Prefecture
Port settlements in Japan
Populated coastal places in Japan