2016 Volume 15 Pages 92-105
In this article, we discuss the situation people affected by the Great East Earthquake are struggling in and the type of relationships disaster volunteers should make with them. The areas that suffered from this earthquake and tsunami are highly diverse. Therefore, we should not understand the situations of these areas in the simple dichotomy scheme of the center-periphery. In these areas, there are many lines that divided the area into the center and periphery. As a result, we cannot deem any one point as the center that controls the peripheries. And, we cannot decide what manner of reconstruction and recovery is best.
In this situation, those affected should re-create the social routines that were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. It is because they have experienced the destruction of the sense of naturalness that forms the foundation of their everyday life, due to the disaster. The reconstruction and recovery means recreating of a sense of naturalness.
Disaster volunteers can make the re-creation of this sense of naturalness when they work on the reconstruction and recovery of a disaster-afflicted area with those affected by it. In order to recreate the sense of naturalness, those affected by the disaster should recover the trust of the continuity of the time. The continuity of the time is established by the philosophy of repeatability. For example, when a volunteer says that he will come back soon and keeps that promise, the people affected by the disaster agree the relationship is not unstable and will continue, therefore they will trust the continuity of time.
