Abstract
It is known that people in disaster areas often find things as “symbols of recovery” which become a support of the heart, hope and encouragement for them. In this paper, the conditions for the establishment of “symbols of recovery” were clarified by carrying out 4 field surveys, such as ‘Cherry blossom trees in Yonomori’ and ‘One miracle pine’, in disaster areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake. In particular, the role of trees were focused on as the natural landscape, with former examples in war damaged cities of World War II, and also including aspects of historical landscape preservation and cultural activities. The results showed that the symbols of recovery had four functions. That is, (1) encouraging scientific understanding of nature and disaster, (2) reflecting personal values such as hope, safety, anxiety and sadness, (3) restoring people's interaction and activity in the area, (4) looking back on the past and telling a message to the future. Therefore, the symbol of recovery was presumed to have a role to relate more strongly to four functions. Things that become symbols, such as natural landscapes and historic landscapes, exist beyond human life. In the long-term recovery over several generations, it becomes a role of the media to convey hopes based on the history of people and areas to the next generation. On the other hand, if government and local leaders disregard the process of careful hunting of the history of each person, or impose the symbol with improper meanings, what would happen to finding the symbol? The hearts of residents in the areas would not recover.
