No. 183, June 2012 | National Diet Library

National Diet Library Newsletter

No. 183, June 2012

Books born out of the Great East Japan Earthquake

Satoko Muramoto
Personnel Division
Administrative Department

Yoshihisa Hattori, Kazuko Matsui
Administrative Division
Administrative Department

This article is based on the article in Japanese of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 612 (March 2012).

It is more than one year since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2012; a number of publications about the earthquake have been published and incorporated into the National Diet Library collections. This article gives book report on some of those collection items, picking up ones which people in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, hard-hit regions, took part in producing.

<<(1) Seishin Kosai, Sono toki Yuriage wa: Heisei
nijūsannen sangatsu jūichinichi Higashinihon
Daishinsai: Kosai Seishin shashinshū (East Japan Great Earthquake in Yuriage),
2011.8, 81p, 30cm, NDL call no.: EG77-J611
This book can be ordered and purchased through the author’s Weblog (Japanese only): http://e5n.mo-blog.jp/e5n/>>

<<(2) Miyakoshi edit, Kōhō Miyako (139), 2011.6.1
Accessible via the website of Miyako City (Japanese only):
http://www.city.miyako.iwate.jp/cb/hpc/Article-7038.html
The photo shows p.3. The NDL holds an excerpted
version, Tsunami: miyakoshi no hisai kiroku to fukkō
eno ippo : shashin tokushū: document 2011.3.11,
NDL call no.: Y121-J6390>>

<<(3) Ikiteiru ikiteyuku: Biggu Paretto Fukushima hinanjoki (Alive, Living and Life), “Biggu Paretto Fukushima hinanjoki”
kankōīnkai, 2011.9, 233p. 22cm, NDL call no.: EG77-J634
The photo shows the English edition, which can be ordered and purchased through the following website (Japanese only):
http://binb-store.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13043>>

1 Recording the earthquake

Sono toki Yuriage wa (1) is an extensive photo collection of the two days, March 11 and 12, taken by the author who lives in Yuriage, Natori City, Miyagi with his own camera.
Kōhō Miyako No.139 (2) is an issue of Miyako City’s public relations magazine, which includes photos of disaster damage to seven coastal areas in the city shot by city government staff, members of a fisheries cooperative, and others. Both report vividly the impact of the tsunami with short and urgent captions.
Ikiteiru ikiteyuku (3) documents the lives of refugees, compiling voices of people who found shelter in Big Palette Fukushima, a multi-purpose exhibition hall in Koriyama City, Fukushima. These stories are accompanied with photographs by Katsuhiro Noguchi and poems by Ryoichi Wago. Kazuhiko Amano (Culture & Sports Bureau, Fukushima Prefectural Government), who called for publishing this book, spoke in an interview recorded at the end of the book about the operation of the shelter with a keyword “otagai-sama,” which means helping each other in a difficult situation.
Iwate Prefectural Library, Miyagi Prefectural Library and Fukushima Prefectural Library collected materials on the earthquake disaster, including books, magazines, official or volunteer publications, and leaflets. Iwate Prefectural Library published the catalog of these materials on the Internet (http://www.library.pref.iwate.jp/0311jisin/shinsailib/catalog_index.html).

<<(4) Sendai/Miyagi myūjiamu araiansu ed. Sendaishi
kyōikuīnkai supervised, Sendai nōto: myūjiamu-tte nandarō, Sendaishi shiminbunkajigyōdan, 2011.10 112, 32p. 26cm, NDL call no.: UA31-J169
For how to get this book, see the selling agency’s website (Japanese only): http://www.mikipress.com/>>

<<(5) Umi to kaze to machi to: Miyagi no omoide shashinshū: 3. 11 tsunami de ushinawareta Miyagi no fūkei, Miyagi no omoide shashinshū seisakuīnkai, 2011.10 121p. 20x20cm, NDL call no.: GC22-J36
This book can be ordered and purchased through the publisher’s website (Japanese only):
http://www.m-omoide.jp/>>

2 Storing memories before the earthquake

Sendai nōto (4) is an effort to record the culture of Miyagi including those lost in the earthquake. It covers, for example, exquisite paper embellishment called “kiriko,” a natural park restoring the ice-age forest, book stores in the prefecture, and others. At the end of the book, art galleries and museums in the six prefectures of the Tohoku region are listed in “Tohoku museum catalog,” with information about the restoration of these facilities, as of July 2011.
Umi to kaze to machi to (5) is a photo collection, composed of pictures selected from those provided by the public, intended to restore the landscapes before the tsunami. Unexpected in a book related the earthquake disaster, the beautiful color of the sea is very impressive.

<<(6) Sendai hito/machi kōryūzaidan ed. Watakushi wa kōshite shinoida: shoku no chiebukuro: 3. 11 Higashinihon Daishinsai, 2011.12 44p. 21cm, NDL call no.: Y93-J4591
This book can be ordered and purchased through the publisher’s website (Japanese only):
http://www.stks.city.sendai.jp/hito/WebPages/osirase/sassi.html>>

<<(7) Tomoyuki Bannai et al. Hōshasen ni nanka makenaizo: irasuto bukku, Tarōjirōsha editasu, 2012.1 47p. 23cm, NDL call no.: Y11-N12-J28
For how to get this book, see the pubｌisher’s website (Japanese only): http://www.tarojiro.co.jp/>>

<<(8) Gakkō no kiki kanri: Higashinihon Daisinsai kara manabu tsugi eno sonae, Iwanumashi kyōikuīnkai, [2011] 77p. 30cm, NDL call no.: FC1-J195
CD-R version can be mailed by the publisher.>>

3 Post-quake survival

Watakushi wa kōshite shinoida (6) introduces recipes using stored ingredients cookable in a no-water, no-electricity and no-gas environment. These recipes were collected in Sendai City, Miyagi and are shown with profiles of cooks and accompanying episodes. To remedy depressed lives in the disaster-affected areas, they seem to try to enjoy colorful meals. This book also includes the questionnaire data about essential or convenient goods in the difficult circumstances of earthquake disaster answered by the community members.
Hōshasen ni nanka makenaizo (7) was written by a teacher at elementary school for students who have been forced to live in an environment polluted with radioactive materials. It carefully describes basic knowledge about radiation with simple texts and illustrations. There is also a detailed commentary for adult readers who share this book with their children. Along with subjects such as external and internal exposure, decontamination and other matters, many effective actions are seen in this book. The last paragraph titled “Why we all have to discuss such topics?” explains the importance of going through diverse opinions and concludes by saying “We have to promote a better society this way.”
Gakkō no kiki kanri (8) is a crisis-management manual for elementary and junior high schools, prepared by Iwanuma City, Miyagi. This book was published only four months after the earthquake in order to benefit from the experience of the disaster. With messages from the disaster scenes shown before each countermeasure, it gets across clearly not only what to do but also what to give importance to in time of disaster. It provides useful information for schools as well as public institutions like libraries.

A large number of books on the Great East Japan Earthquake have been published and so introduced here are only a very small part of them. The information published as a book is different in character from that on the Internet or Twitter. We, the National Diet Library, will preserve these materials to keep alive the memories of the earthquake and to contribute to disaster prevention. We pay our highest respect to those who compiled valuable facts amid great destruction and sincerely hope that these publications may give assistance to the people affected by the earthquake.

to the index