Why do Survivors of a Tsunami Return to the Coast?: A Rationale behind their History of Disasters

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  • なぜ被災者が津波常習地へと帰るのか――気仙沼市唐桑町の海難史のなかの津波――
  • ナゼ ヒサイシャ ガ ツナミ ジョウシュウチ エ ト カエル ノ カ : ケセンヌマシ カラクワマチ ノ カイナンシ ノ ナカ ノ ツナミ

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<p>Why do people who have just experienced a huge tsunami try to return to the coast? This paper attempts to argue for the rationality of living in a place where a tsunami strikes with apparent frequency. Based on fieldwork conducted in a fishing village where 44 houses out of 52 and, more traumatically, four villagers were swept away by the Great Tsunami of March 11, 2011, this paper attempts to clarify people’s reasoning behind returning to their homeland and their attitude toward the sea.</p><p>Even after a natural disaster of tremendous scale occurs, some victims attempt to remain or later return “home” while inviting the risk of experiencing further catastrophe. As reported worldwide, the Great East Japan Earthquake of magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, resulted in a large tsunami, which inflicted devastating damage on the inhabitants of fishing villages along the Pacific coast of the Tohoku area. The Sanriku-region, situated in a seismically active zone, has repeatedly incurred serious damage from tsunamis. Hence even the tsunami that occurred on March 11 was not unprecedented in its history. So why do people opt to continuously live in areas prone to natural disasters instead of living at a distance from the coastline? In particular, for those who have just experienced a tsunami, what motivates them to make the decision to go back to the coast?</p><p>Located in the North-East part (Tohoku-district) of Japan, the Sanriku-region stretches along the Pacific Ocean coast. Embracing a sea rich in a large variety of fish, its coastline, named the Rias coast, maintains a geographical vulnerability, which induces tsunamis and amplifies their force.. Hence, not a small number of villages along the Sanriku coast have already repeatedly lived through the devastating damage of tsunamis. In order to examine why people, who have just experienced a tsunami, may try to go back to the Sanriku coast, an attempt will be made to understand the strategies of the inhabitants of coastal villages who, assumingly, somehow find the means to culturally interpret and “domesticate” marine catastrophes into their community history.</p><p>In conclusion, at least as indicated by the Moune community of the Sanriku coast, people know that life near the coast is inevitably entwined with both the severity and fertility of the sea. In other words, what people in Moune know is that they cannot have one without the other. and that is what they have adapted to. Because of their closeness to the sea, the fertility they enjoy and the vulnerability of a coastal community are inseparable for them, like two sides of the same coin. They know that both are born from the same sea.</p>

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