Kotoku Wamura’s Lifesaving Fudai Floodgate

From 1947 to 1987, Kotoku Wamura served as mayor of Fudai in Iwate Prefecture in Japan and pushed through a massive floodgate project that cost about ¥3.56 billion, even as critics mocked it as an unnecessary waste. He had grown up hearing stories of deadly tsunamis and insisted on building the towering concrete barrier at the village's harbor. In March 2011, when the T?hoku earthquake unleashed a devastating tsunami along Japan's northeast coast, the Fudai floodgate held firm and stopped the incoming wall of water. Despite the destruction of many nearby communities, Fudai managed to survive largely intact.

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