Abstract
Memory-Work in Post-Disaster Tōhoku: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Narratives
After the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, the Japanese government made memorialization of the disaster a guiding principle for reconstruction in the Tōhoku area. In the past years along Japan’s North-eastern coast, an impressive number of memorial sites and museums were created by a variety actors. However, the presented disaster memory narratives are not uncontested. Based on Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance, I ask whether the memory narratives of three memorial sites in Ishinomaki City resonate with affected people and whether they have the potential to contribute to social healing and/or social and political conflict.
