＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
Just recently in Japan, on July 30, 2020, there was an explosion at a restaurant undergoing renovation in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, due to gas leaking from a propane gas cylinder. However, the recent explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, was far more devastating.
1. Lebanon Explosion
On August 4th (August 5th Japan time), a massive explosion occurred at a port warehouse in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 137 people and injuring over 5,000, including one Japanese. The cause is currently under investigation, but it appears that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in explosives, which had been stored in the warehouse for over six years, was ignited by welding sparks while repairing a hole in a wall. It does not appear to have been a terrorist attack.
The cause appears to have been “long-standing, careless management of chemicals.”
2. Tenroku Gas Explosion
I vividly remember the Tenroku Gas Explosion, which occurred in 1970 (Showa 45).
This gas explosion occurred at the construction site of Tenjinbashisuji Rokuchome Station, during construction of the Osaka Municipal Subway Tanimachi Line extension. 79 people were killed and 420 were injured, with 26 homes completely or partially burned, 336 homes destroyed by the blast, and over 1,000 homes having their doors and windows shattered by the blast.
The Tanimachi Subway Line opened between Higashi-Umeda and Tennoji before the opening of the Osaka Expo in March 1970, and was under construction to extend the line to Miyakojima Station at the time of the accident.
Work was underway in an underground space that had been dug up and covered with concrete lining plates. The gas pipe that caused the accident had been removed, leaving it exposed and floating in the air. It appears that deterioration of the pipe over time and repeated excavation and backfilling had caused the pipe’s joints to come loose, causing a large amount of gas to leak, ignite, and explode.
The rush to complete the work ahead of the Osaka Expo may have been an indirect cause.
3. The Importance of Safety Management: Learning from Failure
Currently, construction work on hotels, buildings, and apartments is underway across Japan, and accidents have occurred, including falling demolition scaffolding and collapsed cranes.
While those involved in these construction projects are likely taking particular care with gas pipes and other structures, accidents like these frequently occur prompt a call for even more thorough safety management.
Furthermore, Japan should thoroughly review and re-examine the storage and management of hazardous materials, such as chemicals, which were the cause of the Lebanon explosion.
Now is the time to learn from failure.
There is something called the “science of failure” and the “study of failure.” These are new academic fields proposed by Yotaro Hatamura, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, famous for his book “The Study of Failure.”
“Failure Studies” is a field that combines elements of business management with safety engineering. Rather than simply assigning responsibility for failure, it seeks to uncover both the direct physical and personal causes and the underlying underlying causes—contextual and organizational.
However, the book “Introduction to Failure Studies” not only elucidates the engineering mechanisms of failure, but also focuses on the mechanisms by which humans learn from failure and evolve, revealing that the key to our evolution and success lies in how we deal with failure.
The book addresses issues of medical malpractice in the medical world and safety management in the aviation industry.
The author concludes that “anyone can improve their abilities at any time.” He argues that failure is necessary for this, and that those who positively and strongly recognize that “failure is an essential part of the human growth process” are the ones who will become successful.
In other words, failure is not something to be avoided or something that is acceptable, but something essential for human growth and success.