Life Beyond the Tōhoku Disasters

Autonomy and Adaptability in Coastal Japan

By Alyne E. Delaney

This book explores, in rich, ethnographic detail, the lives of a group of Japanese fishers and community residents in coastal Japan in the aftermath of the tsunami generated from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Focused on one town in Miyagi Prefecture near the epicenter of the 2011 quake, the text provides a singularly unique opportunity to hear, in their own voices, individuals’ reflections and experiences on life after the disasters while also drawing upon anthropological fieldwork data from many of the same individuals 10 years prior to the disaster.

Alyne E. Delaney skillfully contextualizes local culture and fishing livelihoods and lays out key impacts of disaster reconstruction policies on local society, illustrating the importance of people’s attachment to their places and seascapes, their connections with one another and shared traditions, and their sea-connected working ways of life.

Delaney reveals not only the heartbreak of the disasters and the strain placed on individuals and coastal communities when national policymakers fail to use good governance when rebuilding, but also provides insights into how some have managed to recover and learn the wisdom of knowing what real happiness is, offering readers an enlightening discourse of the potency of the local cultural traits of autonomy and adaptability.

About Alyne E. Delaney

Environmental and cultural anthropologist whose early work began by looking at Japanese fishing cooperative association members’ responses to environmental pollution, and led to looking at personal autonomy, women’s roles, consolidation of cooperatives, cultural heritage, and efforts to highlight impacts of development on local fishers and their communities (blue justice before we had a term for it!).

After spending time in Denmark as a post-doc, working and connecting with a vast and wonderful network of marine/maritime social scientists in Europe, she returned to Japan, where she is now tenured at Tohoku University. The recently published monograph provided an opportunity for Delaney to combine her early work with her post March 11th 2011 research (on 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami) with small-scale fishers and coastal residents in Miyagi, Japan.

Delaney’s research interests continue to be varied and include topics such as cultural heritage, oral history, women and gender, revitalization (e.g., umigyo), climate change impacts/responses, disaster, and many other topics. She also works to increase transdisciplinary work in the local coastal zones with local collaborators and natural scientists, such as on eDNA and oral history projects with fishers and coastal residents.

Delaney has contributed to numerous TBTI Global and TBTI Japan publications and is active in TBTI Japan. Individual scholars are also welcome to apply to work with her through fellowships such as JSPS and her home institute’s visiting fellows program.