Public Anthropology of Disaster and Recovery : "Archive of Hope"(希望ア-カイブ)(<Special Issues>Practicing a Public Anthropology of the East Japan Disaster)

Abstract

The 3.11 disasters forced upon anthropologists in Japan a series of questions about our own relevance and the relevance of our discipline to the world around us: how can we contribute to both an amelioration and an understanding of the pain suffered by so many so close to home? Will this contribution be "anthropological" and if so, in what way? This research note outlines the efforts of our project, Voices from Tohoku, to address these problems through direct action in the form of volunteer work and through the creation of a data base of oral narratives collected on video from different communities all over the affected region - the two primary components of a "public anthropology" as we see them. The resulting product is called "The Archive of Hope" (tohokukaranokoe.org).