2014 Volume 66 Issue 4 Pages 393-396
This research analyzes dead body processing during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The capacity of crematories in the damaged area was limited due to the huge number of deaths caused by the earthquake or tsunami. Since the wide area or mutual supports system plan was not organized in details concerning disaster management, it was difficult to effective or efficiently cope with the deaths. In Miyagi prefecture, the temporal burial method was applied despite exceeding capacity.
After the disaster, some local governments tried to include a plan for death processing during disasters in their disaster management plan, but the number of those local governments was not enough even in the damaged area of Tohoku. The families with victims caused by disasters normally asks for immediate or effective dead body processing in Japan. However, since the dead body processing method has not been included in disaster management plans, it is difficult to respond quickly during disasters.
This research presents the results of the analysis of dead body processing in damaged areas and the problems related to its application in disaster management plans.
