Transferring Historical Disaster Memories: The 1925 North Tajima Earthquake

Abstract

This article investigates how historical disaster memories are formed and transferred over time, by focusing on disaster memory sites of two communities in Japan, which were heavily damaged due to the North Tajima Earthquake of May 23, 1925. This earthquake occurred ninety-five years ago, however, people have continued transferring the disaster experiences. By examining the process of formulating and transferring disaster memory, the study reveals that memories are transferred not only because of existence of disaster memory sites, but also there is a system to communicate memory to these sites. Furthermore, these memories have become a part of the living memory of these communities.