PSA: On the Izu Islands & the gas mask wedding photographs

It seems like whenever I type in “Izu Islands” into google, the first thing that comes up- without fail- is that black and white picture of the Japanese wedding where everyone is wearing gas masks. It’s a little frustrating, particularly when I click on articles that expound the history and just label the “island” where that happened as “Izu Island”.

If you don’t read my blog, let me inform you: The Izu Islands are a series of 16 or 17 islands, south of Tokyo Prefecture and the right of Shizuoka Prefecture. The island that the pictures were taken at is Miyakejima, one of the larger islands; it has a big and active volcano on it that, instead of exploding, usually emits sulfur into the air. Now, keeping in mind that sulfur is poisonous and can kill you, the gas masks are there so the residents can survive. I have a friend (another JET, actually) who lives on this island and, while he does carry a gas mask with him at all times, to my knowledge he’s never had to put it on. Those pictures were taken at least 60 years ago and to assume that people are still running around with them all the time is not only ignorant but shows that you don’t know how to use Wikipedia and will believe anything you see on the internet. Just to clarify: the pictures you’re looking at were taken at ONE island, called Miyakejima. Not all 16 of these islands. Miyakejima is the only island in the region where anyone has ever had to wear a gas mask.



For further clarification purposes, I don’t live on this island. I live on Kozushima, which is the island just north of Miyakejima. But I do live in the Izu Islands, which -one again- is a series of islands, not just one big one where people are running around in gas masks all the time. I’ve realized that there is actually very little information about the region I’m living in, and I’m taking it upon myself to education the english-speaking world about these beautiful, little-known islands that I call home now. I’ve made it a point to travel to as many of them as I can while I’m here, and so far the only other one I’ve been to is Oshima (the closest one to Tokyo), but it was for a weekend trip and I had a great time. Maybe I’ll post pictures at some point. Anyways, I’m finding a new purpose in this blog as a means of educating the internet about where I live and the reality of life here.