Abstract
Disaster revival assistance in Taiwan is quite different from the cases in Japan, religious organizations rather than the nation state play a central role. This paper discusses the justifiability on which the religious organization is implementing its disaster revival assistance through an analysis of two different assistance activities by the Buddhist organization in Taiwan. In the recovery process after the 921 Great Earthquake in 1999, the Buddhist organization has carried out principal roles based on its own justifiability. This is because it was based on the social solidarity of the people who could not benefit enough by the share of resources from the nation state and the revival assistance was carried out based on the ambiguous position of both supporters
and those being supported. However, the revival assistance by the Buddhist organization could not gain its justifiability in the recovery process following the typhoon Morakot in 2009, This paper critically analyzes the contents of its activities and found that its revival assistance came to be recognized as an agent of the government, in the form of “charitable assistance” for instance, after the typhoon Morakot, though it had been initially deemed as an alternative to the government after the 921 Earthquake. The core members of the disaster victims were constantly been viewed as “others” to the organization. As a result, the organization could not carry out the recovery support based on the position of ambiguity. By comparing the recovery activities of the Buddhist organization during the great disasters, this research also found that the revival assistance policy brought conflict between both the supporters and the victims, thereby changing the reconstruction model and the recovery plans lost its justifiability.
