Fudai Floodgate in Fudai, Japan

Built between 1972 and 1984, Fudai's floodgate was erected thanks to the insistence of longtime mayor Kotoku Wamura. A witness to the 1933 Sanriku tsunami that claimed 137 of Fudai's inhabitants, and aware that an even deadlier tsunami had struck the town in 1896, he vowed to ensure that such devastation would never happen again.

As such, the village erected a 51-foot seawall in 1967, taller than the waves that hit it in 1896. But that wasn't enough for Wamura. He insisted on building a floodgate of the same size that could be raised to stop tsunamis, a plan the town council initially opposed, reluctant to commit to such a large project.

But Wamura prevailed. Considered one of the tallest in the region and costing a total of 3.56 billion yen in prefectural and national funds, the barrier became an object of local ridicule for decades as an alleged "pork-barrel" project.

That all changed after the 2011 Tōhoku Tsunami, when the village was largely spared from the massive flooding that devastated most of Japan's northeast coast. Firefighters closed the floodgates in the nick of time. While the 66-foot waves were taller than the gate, they lost most of their momentum and caused only minimal damage. Smaller barriers in nearby towns were not nearly as effective.

Tarō, for instance, had a two-layer 33-foot wall but still lost at least 140 lives. By contrast, Fudai suffered only one casualty, a fisherman at the port beyond the floodgate. Though the coastal port was damaged, the schools just up the hill from the floodgate remained unscathed. Following the tsunami, locals visited the late Wamura's grave to thank him for his town-saving foresight.

Today, a memorial honoring him stands besides floodgate.