Japan Activated Air Raid Sirens During North Korea's Missile Test Monday (cnn.com)

"No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in Japan," the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Monday. Though it was only a test, the scene on-the-ground is described by Slashdot reader AppleHoshi: Our phones went crazy on receipt of an automated alert from the "J-Alert" system. Shortly afterwards, loudspeakers broadcast another alert (there are loudspeakers everywhere in Japan, to warn of earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons). As normal with any disaster situation in Japan, all of the available television channels immediately switched over to full-coverage mode, with a repetition of what the situation was ("There's a missile heading in the direction of north-central Japan") followed by basic instructions of what to do ("If it comes down in your area, try to extinguish any fires and immediately inform your local police and fire departments").

Shortly before twenty past six we got the news that the missile had over-flown northern Japan and landed in the Pacific, about 1,000 km [621 miles] from the coast of Hokkaido. The "all-clear" was broadcast over the local speakers a short while later. Strange as it may seem, this all had an air of normality about it. Japan gets more than it's fair share of natural disasters, so anyone living here gets plenty of exposure to this same routine. (It's just that the reason is usually an earthquake, typhoon or tsunami, rather than a megalomaniac).

Comments

Re:Dear Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear American Taxpayer,

As part of our surrender to YOU we agreed to allow YOU do defend us against external aggression instead of rebuilding our military.

Sincerely,
Japan.

P.S. Maybe Trump should think about renegotiating that tax payer nightmare.

Re: Trump will ignore it

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but Hillary would have just ignored the problem if Dear Leader "donated" a few million to the Clinton Foundation.

Scaremongering

[djinn6]

What's the point of scaring everyone with this? If it's a missile test, it would have been announced beforehand to anyone who cares to listen. If it's a real attack, then there's no point telling people to put out fires started by the missile. I suspect there's a political reason they're doing this, maybe to get the public riled up to join a US-led coalition agains NK, or maybe just for more defense budget.

Re:Scaremongering

[thegarbz]

What's the point of scaring everyone with this?

What's the point of an alert system?

If it's a missile test, it would have been announced beforehand to anyone who cares to listen.

Ahh but was it? As far as I could tell this came as somewhat of a surprise. And even if it was, and even if the intended destination was announced, NK's missiles do not have a reputation of reliably getting all the way to their target. Many seem to fall out of the sky early.

If it's a real attack, then there's no point telling people to put out fires started by the missile.

Of course there is. Context of what happens in a disaster is important to an emergency response. Was that explosion right now a terrorist attack with local threats still present, or was it a one off ordinance where we can go in and provide aid and mittigate further damage straight away? Maybe it was a gas explosion and therefore people shouldn't go into the area. There's a lot that can change with a bit of context.

I suspect there's a political reason they're doing this

Yes there is. An emergency alert system that doesn't announce an emergency due to someone in the government deciding it shouldn't definitely would have political consequences if an incident happened.

Re:North Korea is a bastion of peace . . .

[gtall]

Four words: nuclear fallout, prevailing winds.