2014 Volume 26 Pages 11-28
The gigantic earthquake of magnitude 9.0 which occurred on 11th March, 2011 caused tremendous damage to the huge coastal area around Northeast Japan. The tsunami was of historical record in terms of its height and area affected. The catastrophic damaged communities had been in financial difficulties with a high percentage of aged people, revealing various types of precariousness in the social structure of the communities and the vulnerability individual resident groups had. Therefor it is a very difficult challenge for the community people to deal with issues developing in the regeneration stage. This paper focuses on the people’s experiences in the regeneration stage of these damaged communities, especially in relation to the developing contextual mechanism from pre-disaster stage to evacuation and rescue, temporary living, and regeneration stage. We begin by trying to describe the experiences of the people in Otuchi town, Iwate prefecture based on the in-depth interviews. At this point (about three years after the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami), people in tsunami-stricken communities have to consider seriously and deal with carefully a number of issues developing in tandem for their better future. These issues include assessing the building of sea walls and the effects thereof, reorganizing land use (both in and out of low-lying plains), investigating the possibility (and pros and cons) of moving homes to higher ground, repositioning key regional facilities (including maintaining industrial facilities and promoting industries), creating job opportunities and rebuilding of livelihoods for people of all ages, maintaining evacuation routes in tsunami-stricken areas, and managing regional disaster prevention. In the meantime there may be a process of forgetting or underestimating tsunami-stricken experiences. Reconsidering these experiences and reorganizing local lifestyles is a focal point to see the future.
