Our 14-and-under youth baseball team from South Pasadena had just taken the lead with a four-run rally in the second inning when my son stepped up to the plate. Then a siren rang out — and wouldn’t stop. Our players, our parents, our coach, and I (the team organizer-manager) were unsure what it meant. We wanted to keep playing. We had traveled 6,500 miles from Southern California to Okinawa to play local teams. The trip was spurred by two of our former players, whose families had relocated to Japan in recent years. We were excited to be playing in the town of Kunigami, at Kaigin Stadium, spring training home for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani during his Japanese career. It would be our last time ever playing with our Okinawa-based teammate, a pitcher, who was take the mound later in the game. But with the siren blaring, the umpire stopped play. We were admiring a clubhouse photo of Ohtani when our Japanese-speaking parents gave us the news: A tsunami warning had been issued for Okinawa, after an earthquake off Russia’s Pacific coast. The tsunami warning system went global after the devastating 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It’s a combination of two networks. One — of seismic stations, DART (deep ocean) buoys, and coastal tidal gauges — detects tsunamis. The other issues warnings to local communities. As the phone of our opponents started to vibrate with text warnings, my phone went off too. But the emergency alert on it was from Santa Barbara, advising me to seek higher ground. Minutes later, L.A. County sent a similar warning. If we’d been playing in South Pasadena, we’d be 20 miles inland. But Kaigin Stadium is just 100 yards from the East China Sea. Out of an abundance of caution, both teams moved to the top of the stands. There, on our phones, we looked at the placid sea and read about local warnings being issued as far away as Chile. No one — not our opponents, not Kunigami residents in nearby neighborhoods — seemed to think that a tsunami would reach Kunigami. Nonetheless, island authorities soon ordered an evacuation. In rented minivans, we followed the Motobu team bus up a mountain to Kunigami Forest Park. A downpour greeted us. Seeking shelter and bathrooms, we paid $3 to enter an air-conditioned art-and-play building for toddlers. I spent the next two hours trying to keep our ballplayers from pelting each other with child’s toys. After 1:30 p.m., the evacuation warning was lifted. We drove back to the stadium. But the municipality wouldn’t let us continue. Our opponents protested politely — the evacuation was over — to no avail. The first game was declared a victory. Two afternoon games were also called off. The earthquake did not produce dangerous tsunamis in Japan or elsewhere. But in the aftermath, the Japanese press questioned why people hadn’t responded to evacuation orders. In an editorial, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading newspaper, said that the millions of summertime visitors to Japan had been uncertain about what to do, since warnings were broadcast in Japanese. We were lucky to have an opposing team and our Japanese speaking parents to guide us. We were lucky that the tsunami threat wasn’t more serious. We were also the benefits of good design. We saw firsthand that the world has a working tsunami system, with global reach and local notice. Warning systems for too many other kinds of emergencies — fires, diseases, wars, terrorist attacks — lack the same reach. Back in January, a firestorm killed 17 people in Altadena, which did not receive local warnings until it was too late. If only major fires were considered global events, worthy of universal local warnings. Warnings only work if we follow them. I was tempted to ignore warnings are there — I wanted to keep playing in that idyllic stadium. But we followed the evacuation orders, and made it home safely. Perhaps someday, we can return to Kunigami and finish those games.
Joe Mathews is columnist for Democracy Local and Zócalo Public Square.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Mathews: A baseball tsunami, on both sides of the Pacific
Reporting by Joe Mathews / Ventura County Star
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