東日本大震災に特有の災害対応課題について考える

抄録

In Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, more than 1,000 people were killed or missing each due to the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. It is thought that damaged local governments have faced a lot of difficult problems concerning social responses caused by the wide-area catastrophic damage. The purpose of my paper was to examine problems concerning social responses under the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster that are peculiar to “a wide-area catastrophic disaster". I define “a wide-area catastrophic disaster" to refer to a disaster that causes catastrophic damage to two more prefectures. For the purpose of this study, first, the method of disaster categorization in terms of the degree of damage and the extent of damage was proposed. Secondly, the degree of damage and the extent of damage of the 2011 event were discussed in terms of tsunami height, inundation area, the number of dead and missing people and the amount of disaster debris. Thirdly, particular problems concerning social responses under the 2011 event were discussed by using limited reports and data that are published on the Internet. As a result, 5 types of particular problems under the 2011 event as a wide-area catastrophic disaster were pointed out: the limit of social response of damaged local governments, the limit of social response of supporting local governments, competition of resource support during damaged local governments, instability of policies, uncertainty of problem concerning social response. In conclusion, understanding the particular problems concerning social response under a wide-area catastrophic disaster is considered essential for reducing damages of next catastrophic disasters. It is recommended that particular problems concerning social responses under the 2011 event are discussed by using more data that will be published and hearing the local governors in the damaged area and so on.