Skip to Main Content

Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters

Online ISBN:
9780226638577
Print ISBN:
9780226638263
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters

Daniel P. Aldrich
Daniel P. Aldrich
Northeastern University
Find on
Published online:
21 May 2020
Published in print:
9 July 2019
Online ISBN:
9780226638577
Print ISBN:
9780226638263
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

Japan's triple disasters - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown- on March 11 2011 took more than 18,400 lives and caused $235 billion in damage across the Tohoku region. This book tackles several pressing mysteries about the catastrophes, including how more than 96% of the residents of inundated areas survived despite 60-foot waves. Further, mortality rates varied tremendously from town to town in the region, with some communities losing one in ten residents to the disaster and others having no casualties. So too in the recovery process, rates of return and rebuilding have not moved in lockstep across Tohoku. Where some communities have rebounded and even gained population, others have lagged behind. Some observers have been content to explain the 3/11 crises and recovery in terms of culture. Moving beyond that narrow lens, Black Wave looks at multiple levels of recovery - individual, town, regional, national, and international - with a focus on connections and governance. Drawing on years of field work, extensive interviews, hundreds of surveys, and quantitative and qualitative analyses, this book illuminates the ways that social ties and the quality of political guidance and leadership influenced survival and recovery after one of the worst compounded disasters in memory.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close