January 20, 2006
Disaster Reduction Forum
TeLL-Net Kick-off Assembly
at JICA Hyogo International Center

Keynote Lecture

Facing Disasters:
The Importance of Telling the Story
Hirotada Hirose(Tokyo Woman’s Christian University)

The Importance of Telling Disaster Stories
Reviving dim memories in those who have forgotten
Enabling people who have never experienced
disaster to experience it vicariously
The power of raw words
Determination to prevent such a tragedy ever happening again

Motivating people to improvedisaster-preparedness

Changes in the Mode of Telling
Rawmaterial

Original experience (feelings that cannot be put intowords, experience of mental and physical trauma）“the indescribable”
Original experience isobjectifiedExperience is articulated
and processed

A Storyteller is born (the story is formalized)
Personal stories of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, theBattle of Okinawa, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

Processedmaterial

The story takes root and becomes
universalized

Art (poetry, novels, pictures, music etc.)

Widening the “Audience” (from the Self to Society)
Society recognizes the value of the story

Telling it for my own
sake, and the sakeof society

The Self

Telling it for myown sakeOther survivors, family members

Work colleagues, friends, acquaintancesSocietySociety recognizes
the value of thestoryWhy Society Needs Storytellers
Survivors’ original experience is forgotten in a short time.
Memories of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake are fading.
Respondents

Residents of rebuilt
apartment blocks

Residents of restored
housing

They have faded quite a lot

４１%

２９%

They have faded a little

５０%

４９%

They have not faded much

９%

１５%

They have not faded at all０%

５%

No response

０%

２%

Total

１００%

１００%

Responses(From a survey carried out in December 2005 by Kyodo News)

Things that are important in terms of stopping memoriesof the disaster from fading
Respondents
Responses
The activities of storytellers, and the activities of the survivors
themselves, such as telling children about their experience of thedisaster
The continuation of restoration support measures by thegovernment
Disaster-preparedness education activities
Ongoing reporting by the mass media
Support for disaster-stricken areas in Japan and other countries,
and activities making use of Japan’s disaster experience, such asdispatching personnel
Continued memorial services attended by top-level local
government representatives such as the Prefectural Governor andthe Mayor
The holding of various gatherings by NPOs and other private-sector
bodiesOtherNo response
Total

Residents ofResidents ofrebuilt apartment
restored housing
blocks

24%

23%

20%
24%
9%

26%
7%
13%

8%

9%

9%

6%

4%
2%
0%
100%

6%
5%
5%100%(From a survey carried out in December 2005 by Kyodo News)The Great Hanshin Flood (July 1938, 68 years ago)
A seasonal rain front caused record torrential rain to fall on the Rokko mountain range.
The ground collapsed at many points alongside the mountains.
Streams of mud from the steep mountainsides formed a landslide which hit urbanareas.

Casualties: 925 dead or missing (1 in every thousand citizens of Kobe)
72.2% of Kobe’s population (then 964,000) were affected by the disaster.
72.1% of households were affected.
The roads were blocked. The municipal streetcars, the JNR (Japan NationalRailways) lines and the Hankyu, Hanshin and Sanyo private rail lines were down.
Kobe was cut off, full of disaster victims.

Could a flood like this happen nowadays?

The Kobe Bombing (mostly in 1945, 61 years ago)
Between April 1942 and immediately after Japan’s defeat in 1945, Kobe
suffered 128 bombing raids.
125 of these took place in 1945.
Casualties: 7,491 dead (1 in every thousand citizens); 17,014 injured.

The postwar recovery from the disaster caused by thebombing took many years. The municipal government’s
postwar recovery program terminated in 1994, the year before
the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

The long road toreconstruction

A forgotten disaster?

The Indian Ocean Tsunami (December 26, 2004):
Many victims were unawareof the danger posed by tsunamis.

Hurricane Katrina (August 25-31, 2005):
Many victims had never dreamed
that New Orleans would ever be flooded.

The Benefits of “Telling”
The survivor:(Suppressing the traumatic experience of disaster, andpain that would be incomprehensible to others)

Providing a forum forstorytelling
Inviting the storyteller totell the story

Recounts his/her individual experience of disaster(traumatic memories are objectified by recounting)

Providing a safe
environment for thestoryteller

The story acquires social valuetranscending the limits of the individual

The listeners:
Are moved, affected (spurred on to improve their disaster-preparedness)

Feedback
The Storyteller:
Gains a sense of self-efficacy, feels validated as useful to society