Challenge to Build the Science of Human Survival from Disaster Starting from Analysis for the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami

Abstract

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused the loss of 20,000 lives in Japan. According to the National Police Agency (2012), 90% of deaths in the Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures were due to drowning. On the other hand, this report also showed that the remaining 10% died from circumstances other than drowning, as suggested by the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine (2012). A new solution is needed to propose practical measures against a tsunami. In this paper, the authors suggest the science of human survival from disaster as one of the solutions and illustrate the research design implemented to build it. Constructing the science of human survival shall be important to mitigate human damages in future tsunami disasters.