The Demands of the Survivors Who are Experiencing Bereavement from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: An Analysis from the Perspective of Spirituality

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the demands of the survivors who lost beloved persons due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami as a 5-year process. The author conducted interviews with two survivors who had lost family members and participated in activities provided by interfaith chaplains of “Café de Monk” and carried out data analysis by the modified grounded theory approach. As a result, it became clear that “finding a meaning for suffering of one’s self” was the key concept and the survivors demanded “warm exchanges with other persons”, “a way to present their religiousness” and “a way to face one’s self”. Additionally, their suffering was found to be related to spiritual pain. As conclusions, the activities of the interfaith chaplain were related to the consideration of the spiritual pain of the people and the necessity for “Spiritually-Sensitive-Social Work” in social work practice was identified for persons in a situation of unbearable pain.