Japan after 3/11: Global Perspectives on the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Meltdown

Pradyumna P. Karan · Unryu Suganuma

Sep 2016 · University Press of Kentucky

About this ebook

On March 11, 2011, an underwater earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan, triggered one of the most devastating tsunamis of a generation. The aftermath was overwhelming: communities were reduced to rubble, thousands of people were missing or dead, and relief organizations struggled to reach affected areas to provide aid for survivors and victims of radiation from compromised nuclear reactors.

In Japan after 3/11, editors Pradyumna P. Karan and Unryu Suganuma assemble geographers, economists, humanists, and scientists to consider the complex economic, physical, and social impacts of this heartbreaking disaster. Historical geographers place the events of March 2011 in context, while other contributors assess the damage and recommend strategies for the long process of reclamation and rebuilding. The book also includes interviews with victims that explore the social implications of radioactive contamination and invite comparisons to the discrimination faced by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Balancing the natural and social sciences, this timely volume offers not only a model of interdisciplinary research for scholars but also an invaluable guide to the planning and implementation of reconstruction.

About the author

Pradyumna P. Karan, University Research Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, is the author or editor of many books, including Japan in the 21st Century: Environment, Economy, and Society and The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Global Response to a Natural Disaster. Unryu Suganuma is associate professor of geography at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo. He is the author of Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations and coeditor of Local Environmental Movements: A Comparative Study of the United States and Japan.