A Facebook (FB) post carried four photos supposedly showing the aftermath of a tsunami that hit Miyazaki Prefecture this month. This is misleading as the photos were taken after Japan was hit by a tsunami in 2011 and an earthquake in 2022.
Not one photo shows the impact of a tsunami that followed the powerful quake that shook Miyazaki a week ago. One of the photos shows a tsunami in March 2011 in Rikuzentakata, while three others show buildings damaged by a 2022 earthquake in Oita prefecture.
This claim appeared hours after the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Southern Japan on August 8.
No major damage was reported, but the Japanese government warned against a possible mega-quake. A 50-centimeter tsunami also hit the Miyazaki Port in the southern Miyazaki Prefecture.
VERA Files Fact Check used a combination of reverse image search and Google Search to find out the original context behind the misleading photos.
The photo of a tsunami in 2011 engulfing houses, attributed to photographer Tamon Suzuki, originally appeared in a Feb. 1, 2012 article published by the National Geographic Magazine.
Three other photos in the misleading post were captured on Jan. 22, 2022, after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit the Oita Prefecture:
- A photo by Yoshiko Hasabe showing a house wall that collapsed;
- A photo by Masanobu Nakatsukasa showing the part of a damaged building;
- A photo by Kyodo News via Reuters, showing the collapsed gate of a residential house.
FB page Our Japan (created on Dec. 10, 2019) created the misleading post that garnered over 6,372 reactions, 440 comments, and 3,113 shares.
