Bonding After Fukushima: The Role of Trust Relationships Between NPOs’ Volunteers and Disaster Victims in Building Resilience Amidst a Nuclear Catastrophe

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

This chapter outlines the narratives produced by a group of self-evacuated single mothers who left Fukushima Prefecture with their children after 3.11 and moved to temporary housing facilities in the Kansai region of southern Japan. It focuses on how the collaborators from Fukushima established new relationships of trust with some of the non-profit organisations’ volunteers and how this process influenced their identities as disaster ‘victims’ (higaisha) and ‘neoliberal agents of change’. The collaborators used the word higaisha when talking about their experiences of the triple disaster and especially when discussing the nuclear catastrophe. Some post-3.11 research studies have explored how social capital served as an important factor to build resilience after the disaster. It is important to highlight the complexity of the kizuna discourse in order to understand what happened in Fukushima, and not to take for granted that reinforcing social bonds in local communities can always implement social resilience to disaster.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHealth, Wellbeing and Community Recovery in Fukushima
EditorsSudeepa Abeysinghe, Claire Leppold , Akihiko Ozaki , Alison Lloyd Williams
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter13
Pages171-188
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781003182665
Publication statusPublished - 15 Apr 2022

Publication series

NameRoutledge Series on Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate Change
PublisherRoutledge

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Fukushima disaster
  • Nuclear disaster
  • Toxicity
  • NGOs
  • Volunteering
  • Resilience

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