Tsunami waves in the Pacific: Asians see manga forecast fulfilled

Tsunami waves in the Pacific: Asians see manga forecast fulfilled

As a powerful waves spilled over the wide Pacific on Wednesday, people worldwide were excited about the developments and pursued the rapid push of the tsunamis. In China, however, over a million people were looking for an unusual term: "Prophecy". The reason for this is that for some the natural event seemed to have been predicted in a Japanese manga four years ago.

an unexpected sign in a manga

The manga, published in 2021 by the artist Ryo Tatsuki - whose fans claim that their earlier works were similarly prophetic - claimed that the next big earthquake would take place in July. In the past few months, this triggers a wave of viral internet memes and discussions in large parts of Asia. In China, a search term associated with factual "prophecy" in the immediate consequence of the tsunamis on Wednesday over 1.1 million views on the Douyin video app.

fear and caution in travelers

"Will Ryo Tatsuki's prediction for a great catastrophe in July?" was the headline of an article in a Hongkong newspaper on Wednesday. The manga has had a large followers since its publication in 2021. However, he only became a cultural phenomenon this year when fans eagerly expected the author's supposed prediction. So much that many travelers even cancel their summer trips to Japan.

Some tourists are now relieved and ready to return because the events on Wednesday only caused minimal damage. Others, on the other hand, are still unsure and have decided to stay away at the moment. "It runs my back cold!" wrote a Japanese user on X after the massive earthquake of the strength 8.8.

The debate about earthquake predictions

The Chinese traveler Andrea Wang, 25, had canceled a trip to Japan in April because the manga made it "concerned about the risk for my life". Although the tsunami is now over, she is not planning to travel to Japan by the end of 2025, as she reported on Friday.

It is impossible to predict when an earthquake could occur. Seismologists have urged not to believe in the increasing number of so -called predictions. Even Tatsuki advised people in an Interview with the Japanese press in May not to be "too much influenced by their dreams".

The widespread discussion, however, shows how much the manga has taken public imagination - increasingly by fortune tellers across Asia and social media - especially in seismic active Japan, where the constant threat of earthquakes or tsunamis is strongly anchored in collective awareness.

The effects of Tohoku-Erdquake from 2011

Many still sluggish the 2011 Tohoku disaster when an earthquake triggered devastating tsunami waves that led to the Fukushima core melt. This catastrophe demanded more than 22,000 dead or missing and has been part of the national consciousness, with Japanese toddlers who take part in earthquake exercises from the moment they can run, and the government that regularly before an upcoming earthquake once in the century .

Tatsukis Manga and its prophetic interpretation

Tatsuki's manga shows a cartoon -like version of itself that receives visions in sleep, some of which are similar to real events. Some fans believe that she has predicted Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury, while skeptics say that their visions are too vague to be taken seriously.

The earthquake of 2011 increased the belief in factual predictability. Her manga from 1999 "The future I saw" bears the words "massive catastrophe in March 2011" - which caused many to believe that it The earthquake of strength 9.0 had predicted more than a decade.

The prediction that travelers unsettled

in her successor published in 2021 warned Tatuki that an earthquake in the Filipino Sea would cause tsunami waves on July 5 of this year that are three times as high as the waves of Tohoku-Erdquake-which caused many to fear a disaster last month.

Ultimately, a quake occurred thousands of kilometers from the predicted epicenter on Wednesday, and the highest waves measured in Japan was only 1.3 meters - far below the 9 meter high waves that were observed in 2011.

Nevertheless, many travelers, like Wang, decided to take the risk and have been canceled their trips to Japan in the past few months, while on similar warnings from Psychics referred to Japan and Hong Kong.

decline in bookings for Japan-Reisen

CN YUEN, Managing Director of the Hong-Congic travel company WWPKG, reported that the bookings for Japan trips in June and July fell by around 70% compared to the previous year. Oscar Chu, a 36-year-old traveler from Hong Kong, also decided not to travel this summer, even though he usually visited Japan several times a year. "I would not say that I was 100% convinced of the prediction, but I would not rule out the possibility," he said CNN on Friday.

When July 5th passed without an incident, some of his friends booked flights to Japan the next day. He will also travel there in a few weeks after bought tickets on Wednesday morning - just before the news arrived on the tsunami. Nevertheless, he plans the trip: "You can't avoid traveling for a lifetime," he said.

preparations for the "big tribut"

Not all of them are calmed down. Some of Chus friends who love Japan as well as him take precautions by avoiding coastal areas or skipping the beach. They are not the only ones who distrust that a "big catastrophe" on the horizon. The Tsunami on Wednesday has illustrated the vulnerability of millions of people on the coasts of the Pacific, where the seismic "Ring of Fire" has produced many of the strongest earthquakes in the world.

The fears in Japan have increased since the government recently warned that a massive quake in the southern Nankai channel could occur within the next 30 years-even if the scientific opinions have been controversial.

predictions and national alarm willingness

The Nankai channel is a 700 kilometer-long subduction zone on which one tectonic plate slides under another. This fault is recorded every 100 to 200 years of heavy earthquakes, according to the Japanese government's earthquake research program. The last such quakes took place in 1944 and 1946, with at least 2,500 people died and tens of thousands of houses were destroyed.

The Japanese government I always warn that there is a 70-80%probability that Japan is In the next 30 years, another Nankai-Rinne-Erdbieben will be shaken-which causes many scientists to question the accuracy of this probability.