The Aftermath of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Living among the Rubble
By (author) Shoichiro Takezawa
Publication date:
30 September 2016Length of book:
230 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498542517
An insightful study in disaster anthropology, this book takes as its focus the fishing town of Otsuchi in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture, one of the worst damaged areas in the mammoth 2011 tsunami. Here, 1281 of the pre-tsunami population of 15000 were killed and 60% of houses destroyed. To make matters worse, the town’s administrative organs were completely obliterated, and fire ravaged the downtown area for three days, blocking external rescue attempts.
Complete with vivid and detailed witness testimony collected by the author, the book traces the course of eighteen months from the day of the disaster, through the subsequent months of community life in the evacuation centers, onto the struggles between the citizens and local governments in formulating reconstruction plans. It particularly addresses community interactions within the post-disaster context, assessing the locals’ varying degrees of success in organizing emergency committees to deal with such tasks as clearing rubble, hunting down food and obtaining fuel, and inquiring into the sociological reasons for these differences. It also casts new light on administrative failings that significantly augmented the loss of human lives in the disaster, and are threatening to bring further damage through insistence on reconstruction centered on enormous sea walls, against local citizens’ wishes.
Complete with vivid and detailed witness testimony collected by the author, the book traces the course of eighteen months from the day of the disaster, through the subsequent months of community life in the evacuation centers, onto the struggles between the citizens and local governments in formulating reconstruction plans. It particularly addresses community interactions within the post-disaster context, assessing the locals’ varying degrees of success in organizing emergency committees to deal with such tasks as clearing rubble, hunting down food and obtaining fuel, and inquiring into the sociological reasons for these differences. It also casts new light on administrative failings that significantly augmented the loss of human lives in the disaster, and are threatening to bring further damage through insistence on reconstruction centered on enormous sea walls, against local citizens’ wishes.
Social anthropologist Takezawa’s account of what occurred in the coastal villages of Iwate Prefecture following the disastrous events of March 11, 2011, is built on personal experience as a disaster relief volunteer, professional expertise as an ethnologist, and extensive involvement in citizen-led redevelopment efforts. The result is a personalized analysis that produces insights of value to anyone interested in the “ethnography of disaster.” The book covers the 18-month period following the earthquake and tsunami. Its three chapters focus on individual accounts of escape from the tsunami, on relief efforts to care for the thousands of displaced survivors, and on the reconstruction planning process at the local village level. Takezawa’s approach combines on-the-ground experiences (both his own and those of other individuals directly affected) with insights derived from the larger historical and anthropological context. Although many of his recommendations for future disaster planning efforts apply specifically to Japan, most are worth consideration by anyone involved in similar work anywhere in the world. In particular, Takezawa (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan) highlights the value of local social cohesion undergirding successful relief and reconstruction efforts and the role of administrative failings at both the national and local level in hampering those efforts. Summing Up: Recommended. Faculty and professionals.