Keywords

disaster, recovery, local knowledge

Objectives

To record the personal experiments and ensure their preservation for future generations, many experiments have been conducted. The victims themselves have been asked to write about their experiences. Alternatively, third parties have interviewed them and recorded what they said. In recent years, when unexpected disasters strike, there have been attempts at disaster ethnography, recording the words of officials and firemen responding to disasters as well as ordinary citizens, with the aim of sharing lessons learned during the disasters. Because, however, disaster ethnography has been intended to contribute to disaster prevention and reducing the impact of disasters, research has been limited to immediately after the disaster or in the unnatural environments of the places to which victims flee. This research will focus on practical and experiential (customary) knowledge formed through everyday interaction with the natural and social environment, how it affects the response of the victims and their efforts to rebuilt, and its role in the reconstruction of local society. It will draw attention to the need to preserve this experience, examine its social and historical background, and contribute to greater understanding. The primary focus will be on intangible culture affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Research Results

“Local knowledge” had been developed to deal with disasters in the environment where people lived at risk of latent natural disasters. Meanwhile, it was only during the late 1970s that people began to develop an interest in the “local knowledge” in the fields of disaster and disaster prevention studies, which was late compared with the interest in it in the fields of environmental science and ecology. Even after that, little attention had been paid to the “local knowledge” in relation to disaster risk management until the beginning of the 2000s. In the field of disaster prevention, the traditional knowledge and techniques possessed by locals engaging in the environment and ecosystem began to attract attention as alternative support measures to be taken when disaster prevention such as the introduction of cutting-edge civil engineering and architectural technology was financially difficult in areas where disasters frequently occurred and people were deeply dependent on the natural environment. However, as the frequency of occurrence of disasters such as floods and droughts further increased and the extent of such disasters widened due to climate change, the conventional “local knowledge” could no longer deal with these disasters. Therefore, people began to study how to link the “local knowledge” with modern and contemporary technology. These movements represented people’s interest in the “local knowledge” as a prior response to disasters and their high esteem for “local knowledge.”

After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the record and transmission of past earthquake and tsunami disasters as well as the succession of lessons from those disasters drew attention from society in the areas struck by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. At the same time, the process in which the sufferers restored their lives and communities also drew attention and support from home and abroad. Particularly, the influence of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was too extensive to recognize its sufferers, with such influence being observed in various ways. Against these backgrounds, this joint research approached the “local knowledge” through anthropology, folklore, sociology, museology, biology and NPO activities by recognizing it not only as having the function of reducing risk or damage in the prior preparation, but also as having such function workable in the process ranging from an emergency response to restoration after the occurrence of disasters or as being useful in understanding the process of knowledge newly accumulated after experiencing disasters. In the extensive areas struck by disasters, various external groups ranging from administration to specialists to communities conducted support activities, which resulted in the formation of new social relations and of knowledge in each region. Meanwhile, it was impossible to forecast the future trends in disaster-hit areas at that stage in which only four years had passed since the disaster occurred. For this reason, the results of this joint research must be considered as results from a short-period of research.