Lost in the Snow: Japan’s Deadliest Mountain Disaster
Today I tell you to today I tell you the story about the most lethal disaster in mountain climbing history. Follow me to the north of Japan to our Modi Prefecture. It is January in 1902 and we are northern Honshu just before the island of Hokkaido. The Japanese military is on alert because in this time there were tensions between Russia and Japan and it was feared that the Russian Navy would attack the Japanese railway system which runs along the coastline of Japan. The Japanese army wanted to be prepared and they wanted especially a route in land if the situation got dangerous. So they scheduled a march that would start in the capital of Amori which is also called A Modi and go through the mountains of Hakoda Hakoda. Hakoda Hakoda ali literally means blue forest or green forest depending on how you look at it because the word in Japanese means both blue and green. But in January, the forests that covers large part or parts of the Hakoda mountains were mostly white because in this area they regularly experienced the heaviest snowfalls on this planet. All this was well known and the locals and the natives of this area were well experienced with the extreme weather, but the army was not. At least not the 210 infantry soldiers that were stationed in the city of Armor Morti. This unit consisted mostly of men who either didn’t come from snowy areas or were not experienced in mountain climbing in snowy situations. But the soldiers were not deterred at all. This was a training session after all. It was supposed to be tough. So they took off a little before 7:00 a.m. on a Thursday just outside of the city of Amori in the village of Tamogino. The villagers warned the soldiers not to continue or at least take local guides with them, but the men in charge declined. They had their compasses, they had their maps, they had sleds full of provisions and tools, and they were only supposed to reach a hotring area named Tashido that was only 20 km away. So they said, “We are fine, thank you.” and moved on. The scouts of the unit went ahead. The men pulling the sleds made up the rear and they made good progress until they reached Cotto Pass. By then the sled group had fallen behind. So they took an extended break and waited for them. This is when the weather suddenly changed. What was light snowfall before suddenly promised to become a fullon blizzard. The commanding officers discussed if they should turn back. They were not equipped for this kind of extreme weather. But in the end they decided to keep on pushing. So they continued their march and the weather turned from bad to worse. And at around 5 in the afternoon, the snow was so high and the wind was so strong that they had to abandon the sleds. The provisions were split up onto the backs of the soldiers. But of course, they couldn’t carry everything. And at the front of the unit with the scouts, they also had problems because of the snow and the wind, orientation was extremely difficult and they couldn’t find a way to this hotring area they were looking for. So, it was decided that they had to make camp. At around 900 p.m. that evening, everybody reached the provisionary camp, but of course, they had to build shelters to be safe during the night. So, they dug five trenches that were uh 2 m deep into the snow and 2 m x 5 m wide. And they covered the floor with tatami mats. But these were not for lying down because if you lay down and slept, you risk freezing to death during the night. So instead, the men stood side by side, about 40 of them, in each trench, and they started to get a fire going. This took about an hour, and the fires in the end were so small that the men had to take turns to keep warm. But of course, they not only needed rest, but also food. The cooking team had a horrible job. It was not possible in this weather conditions to build some kind of makeshift kitchen. So they had to cook on the snow itself. That meant that the warmth from the cooking fire melted the snow underneath the kitchen setup and while they were cooking the uh the whole setup sank into the melting snow and the kettle tilted and to make matters worse earlier they had to leave the sleds behind and split up the provisions and because of this they couldn’t take all the provisions they had in the first place. So in the end there was not enough food for everyone and the food was not really warm because they were not able to cook it through. Night fell and so did the temperatures. It was now about -20° C and because frostbite was almost guaranteed if the soldiers stood still the commanding officers urged them to sing military songs and stomped their feet. So there was no sleep. There was no real possibility to sleep that night. By then it was obvious that they had to return back to base to our Modi city. The plan was to start marching again at 5:00 a.m. But this night was so horrible that at 2:00 a.m. they started walking again. You have to keep in mind that due to the constant wind and snowfall, orientation was very difficult. And when they started out at 2:00 a.m., they started in the right direction, but soon they got lost. And at 3:30 a.m. they had to return back to base to reorientate themselves. And then they tried again. But because they were already exhausted, they didn’t have sleep the night before, they didn’t have food, they were basically walking for almost 2 days now. They again got lost. This time they landed in the Kum River Valley. The problem was they couldn’t return back the way they came because of a snowstorm. The only way out was to climb up a cliff. But many men were physically not able to do this anymore. And when a commanding officer collapsed and froze to death in sight of almost everybody, this took a huge toll on order and morale. Finally, they got out of the valley, but then they were hit by a fullon blizzard. So, they had to take shelter immediately and they aimed for a mountain they could see in the distance. The temperatures were now during the day about minus20° C and the wind hit them with a speed of almost 29 m/ second. There was so much snow on the ground that in some valleys it was up to 9 m deep. The men carrying the supplies for the unit now abandoned everything they had on their backs trying to get to shelter. About a quarter of the men of the whole unit either got lost or froze to death. But they had no choice. If you were alive, you had to push on. That day, they marched for over 14 hours with little progress made. Night fell again, and they had to make camp again. This time in a valley they happened to walk into by coincidence. But they had no equipment anymore. They had no tools. So they had to make camp without shelter. They huddled next to each other, taking the man with the most frostbite into their middle. They stomped their feet again. They sung military songs. They rubbed against each other in the most unsexy way possible. That night, temperatures dropped below 50° C. It was a catastrophe. Men collapsed and died left and right, and there was nothing they could do but wait for the sun to rise again. Meanwhile, in our Modi city, the lieutenant expected the unit to return back to the village of Tamogino, right outside of our Mori city. They waited for them until midnight, even celebrating a farewell party for a fellow soldier, all the while not really concerned. The soldiers would be here by tomorrow, surely. At the makeshift camp, it was clear that they had to move again. By then, it was only 3:00 a.m. and their compasses were frozen. They started out and immediately got lost again. So, they climbed up a hill to get a sense of the area. The thing is, wind speed increases about 1 m/s for every meter of altitude, causing the perceived temperature to drop about 1°ree. That means that even though the sun was slowly returning, the soldiers faced a chill of about -40° up there. At this point, it is unclear what exactly happened next. Some say the commanding officer said that now every man had to try to get back by themselves, causing soldiers to wander off into the snow and freeze to death, or to soldiers jumping into the ice cold river, hoping the current would take them back to civilization. And that man died because their hands were so frostbitten that they couldn’t open their pants to pee anymore. And well, they weted their pants and this liquid of course froze too. And this caused them to freeze to death. Some say the commanding officers never abandoned command that they just split up into smaller groups. One group found a hut, but they were not able to get a fire going. Some men just vanished into the snow and the nurses of the unit literally pushed themselves to death trying to help their fellow soldiers. In the end, out of the 210 men of this infantry division, only 70 men were alive. At the base in our Modi city, the soldiers were expected to return that day. Rice porridge was cooked. Bonfires were lit at the edge of town to guide to guide their way back home. But no one came and finally the decision was made to form a rescue party that was to dispatch the very next day. That day the weather calmed down. There was no more storm and the sun was even shining. Only the snow and the cold of course were obstacles for the soldiers. They were exhausted. Some men had to be carried. Some men were delusional by now from exhaustion. And of course, they didn’t have compasses. They had no more maps. And the constant snowfall made orientation almost impossible because they were not uh they were not acquainted with that area. Back in our Modi city, the rescue party wanted to head out, but this time they wanted to take local guides with them, but they had to find them first. This took some time. And during that time the weather changed again and it got extremely bad. So they had to wait for the next day. The next day only small groups of men were left. In one group Captain Kaminari ordered Corporal Goto to go on alone and get help. Goto himself was almost delusional from exhaustion, but he did as he was told. So he pushed on through the meters high snow until he couldn’t anymore. And then finally he was found by the rescue party standing up in the snow frozen stiff with his eyes open. Immediately they started to revive him. But it took them 10 minutes until Goto was conscious again. They found Captain Kaminari a short while later. And when the doctor tried to inject him with a stimulant, his skin was frozen. so stiff that the needle couldn’t penetrate. The rescue team worked hard to find survivors and bodies, but they too soon suffered from frostbite and the extreme cold. And after only 2 hours, they had to return back to base. During the next days, more and more bodies were found, but luckily also a few survivors. But many men were in critical condition and died soon after they were rescued. The search efforts were immense. About a thousand people were deployed that searched the area with long bamboo poles or iron rods that were stuck into the snow. And wherever they found something suspicious, they duck. The native people of this area, the I know also helped with their extensive knowledge of the area and of course their sled dogs to help to recover the bodies. The rescue party even installed a fence inside the river to recover all the bodies of the men who fell or jumped into the water. In May of that year, they recovered the last body. Out of the 210 men, only 11 survived. And with this, the Hakoda disaster was finally over. In telling you this story, I’m part of a problem. Because this region suffers from this disaster until this day. There is the impression that there is something to be feared here. When the reality is this is a very special place on earth. You are perfectly safe hiking in spring and summer or skiing in autumn and winter. This area is free of over tourism of hyper capitalism. And when you think calm down woman, I just want to have a good time. I just want to relax. Just book yourself in one of the many delightful onens this area has to offer or eat and drink your way through the many many epo specialtities this region is famous for. All I’m saying is enjoy the blue forest. Enjoy our Modi and I see you next time with an uncanny story about a place you can travel to. Thank you and bye-bye.
❄️ Lost in the Snow — The Hakkōda Mountains Disaster In 1902, 210 Japanese soldiers set out from Aomori for a winter training march. Only 11 would return alive.
What began as a routine military exercise became the deadliest mountain disaster in history — a chilling story of endurance, courage, and nature’s merciless power.
🇯🇵 In this video, I take you deep into northern Japan’s Blue Forest — through the storm that froze an army and the landscape that still remembers them.
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