| schema:text
| - Fact Check: These videos have NOTHING to do with the recent earthquakes in Japan
India Today found that these videos are from Indonesia, the US, and Turkey.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
None of these clips are from Japan. One is from Turkey, the other from the US, and the third one is from Indonesia.
Japan was hit by a series of earthquakes on January 1, the strongest of which measured a staggering 7.4 on the Richter scale. Soon after, the authorities issued Tsunami warnings, which were lifted later on.
Amid this disaster that has led to the loss of at least 48 lives, numerous old and unrelated videos surfaced on social media. Let us talk about three such viral videos.
Claim 1: This video allegedly shows hospital staff rescuing children during the recent earthquake in Japan.
Fact: This video dates back to February 2023. It shows the staff of Topcuoglu Hospital rescuing children in Turkey’s Gaziantep province during the deadly earthquakes that hit the country at the time. Turkish media outlet TRT World uploaded the video on its YouTube channel on February 13, 2023. The Turkish Health Minister Dr Fahrettin Koca had also shared it on X.
As per reports, the Turkey-Syria earthquakes led to the deaths of more than 50,000 people in February 2023.
Claim 2: This video report allegedly shows massive waves hitting the shore during the recent tsunami in Japan.
Fact: This video is not from Japan but from California in the US. It is part of an ABC News report dated December 29, 2023. Per the report, massive waves flooded the streets in California. Many were injured and at least eight people had to be hospitalised.
Per the Los Angeles Times report dated December 28, 2023, high surf and flood advisories were issued for California’s coastal regions.
Claim 3: This clip shows people trying to take selfies when tsunami waves recently hit Japan. They were swept away when waves hit the shore.
Fact: This video is from Indonesia and shows a natural phenomenon called the Bono wave, not a tsunami. Using a keyword search, we found its longer version posted on a Facebook page called “Bono local surfer” on December 10, 2021.
As per Tribune News, the woman seen in the video is Rina Bono, a content creator based in the Riau province of Indonesia. Rina strategically did this act of facing the tidal waves with fellow content creators to promote the tidal bore of the Kampar River, known as Bono.
A Bono wave is a sporadic phenomenon that happens when tidal currents meet river currents, forming giant waves in the estuary of the river.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)