What Shelters Looked Like After the Kumamoto Earthquake — Why Home Fortress Should Be Your First Choice
I came across a post translated from X, describing what people experienced in shelters after the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan, and honestly, it left me feeling heavy.
The purpose behind the Ganghu Civil Defense Team’s “Home Fortress” course has always been clear:
- If at all possible, don’t go to a shelter.
- To avoid going to a shelter, you need to prepare thoroughly.
Of course, if an earthquake or any disaster makes your home unlivable, going to a shelter is almost the only option.
But what about all the other cases — when your home is still livable?
We want you to still be able to, in that situation, get through whatever disaster it is at home, even with limited resources.
And if it truly does come to the point where you have to leave, we want you to already have your Bug-Out Bag (BOB) ready — and ideally, to head somewhere with friends or family you know and trust.
A public shelter should always be the last option.
What weighs on me is this: when we were designing our course material, we naively assumed that malicious behavior would only come from an infiltrating fifth column, or a pro-China borough chief.
But reality is crueler than we imagined.
Maybe out of coercion, maybe out of moral pressure — your own preparation might end up being the thing that breaks you.
Why is it that after I’ve prepared thoroughly, I’m not allowed to keep it for myself?
Why should what I prepared for my own child have to be shared with other children, while my own child doesn’t know where tomorrow’s next meal is coming from?
It’s not that other people’s children don’t matter — but why?
After the Kumamoto earthquake, Japanese social media users shared what they went through in shelters.
One disaster-prep specialist relayed what a firefighter told her: “During a disaster, if your power bank and food aren’t hidden well, people just keep coming to ask for them.”
She figured, worst case, she’d just have to say no, and if things got bad, use a personal alarm to fend people off.
But the firefighter’s response was —
some shelters, in the past, simply pooled every supply that came in and forced an equal split, with the reasoning being “to make up for the people who didn’t prepare.”
Someone else who lived through the 3/11 earthquake put it even more bluntly: in a shelter, even if you’re asked “do you have food or water on you?”, never answer “yes.”
Because the next line is “please donate it to everyone” — and it will be said in a way that’s hard to refuse.
His conclusion: “Whatever you’ve prepared, don’t let anyone know.”
That disaster-prep specialist added one more thing: “Shelters are run by the local community mutual-aid association — the rules are whatever the association says they are.”
Whether you get to keep what’s yours often comes down to who’s running the site — and whether you know them.
As long as your home is still livable, staying home is usually the best option.
A familiar space, supplies you control, being able to decide who gets in — all of these become luxuries the moment things fall apart.
Leave home, and you might lose everything at once.
Home isn’t always defensible.
If it’s destroyed, on fire, or turns into a high-risk combat zone, there comes a point where you have to go.
But even then, where you go still matters.
An unfamiliar large-scale shelter, and a group of people you know and trust, are two very different situations.
In the order of safety we recommend, staying with friends or family, or heading to a shelter run by your own civil defense team, both rank above an unfamiliar government-run shelter.
The rules are set by whoever’s managing the place — so you’d better know that person.
And trust doesn’t grow overnight in the middle of a disaster.
It’s built up, little by little, in ordinary times.
Have you ever been to your borough office?
How many of your neighbors do you actually know?
When there’s a community gathering or event, are you there?
So beyond stockpiling supplies thoroughly, maybe the younger generation also needs to try getting more involved in the neighborhood and community they live in.
Get to know your borough or village chief. Find out who’s often around at the community activity center.
Who does everyone in the community seem to know? Who’s the one who’s always warm, always welcoming everyone in?
They might not be officials from the district office, but because everyone knows them, when something actually happens, they’ll be a key figure in how a shelter runs.
Civil defense can’t stay online.
Even if it just means going out to join events run by a self-trained or civil defense group, and getting to know a few real teammates — that could end up being the hand that helps you when it matters most.
And you — do you know any of them?
This piece assumes a scenario where your home is safe and livable.