Journal of Natural Disaster Science, Volume 30, Number 2, 2009, pp105-114

Waiting as Support, Listening as Aid: A Case Study of Student Disaster Volunteering
after the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake

Koichi SUWA*
Tomohide ATSUMI**
Yoshihiro SEKI***Urban Research Plaza, Osaka City University**Center for the Study of Communication-Design, Osaka University(Received December 1, 2008 accepted June 14, 2009)
ABSTRACTDisaster volunteering as a participatory approach to disaster mitigation was investigatedby examining a case study of student disaster volunteering following the 2004 MidNiigata Prefecture Earthquake on October 23, 2004, which caused serious damage in
Niigata Prefecture in Japan. Immediately after the quake, we started promoting disastervolunteering based on mid- and long-term perspectives. A student group worked as disastervolunteers in collaboration with a consortium of other disaster nonprofit organizations.
Through the student activities, the group established a moderately familiar relationship—neither too close nor too distant—with the residents of temporary housing. In this article,
the significance of the students’ volunteer activities was examined based on a philosophicaldiscussion about waiting and listening. Furthermore, the importance of liberation from therigid relationship of aid provider and aid receiver is discussed.
Keyword: disaster volunteering, waiting and listening, the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake

1. Introduction

another report published by the prefectural government,
approximately 95,000 people in terms of man-days
joined the volunteering efforts after the quake.2 To date,
this is the largest number of volunteers to assist in an
earthquake relief effort since the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake (also known as the Kobe Earthquake).
With some exceptions, most Japanese disastervolunteers3 are untrained and nonprofessional. Disaster volunteering is primarily a participatory disaster
relief effort made by ordinary citizens. People whojoin such an effort will learn about many issues concerning disasters such as what constitutes a disaster,what should be done in the midst of a disaster, andwhat should be done before an impending disasteroccurs. These people will then apply what they have

In this article, we investigate disaster volunteering
as a participatory approach to disaster mitigation by
examining a case study of student disaster volunteering after the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake(also known as the Chuetsu Earthquake) on October23, 2004, which caused serious damage in Niigata
Prefecture in Japan. According to a report published by
the Niigata Prefectural Government on September 24,
2008,1 the earthquake left 68 casualties, 4,795 injured,and 121,495 residential buildings damaged.
Many people within and outside the prefecture
joined the volunteering efforts upon witnessing thesevere damage caused by the earthquake. According to105

K. SUWA, T. ATSUMI, Y. SEKI

volunteers in the rescue and relief activity phases. It
is true that Shaw and Goda (2004) describe the caseof disaster volunteering after the Kobe Earthquake
from a long-term perspective, but their main focus
is to illustrate social change in the disaster area fromthe viewpoint of creating a sustainable civil society.
Volunteering after the rescue and relief activity phases
has not been sufficiently discussed.
Suzuki (2006), who has published one of the latest works on disaster volunteering in Japan, conductedinterviews in the affected areas of the Niigata Heavy
Rains of 2004 and the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake alongside a questionnaire survey in otherregions. On the basis of his research, he points out
five noteworthy points for future disaster volunteering: (1) the need for rear-echelon support, (2) theneed for long-term support, (3) the importance of therole of volunteers of nonprofit organizations in reconnecting the affected area with the rest of the world, (4)the need for regional cooperation, and (5) the need forcooperation under normal conditions.
In this article, we focus on the post-rescue andpost-relief activities conducted as a part of long-term
support for disaster victims, which Suzuki (2006)
points out to be an important aspect of disaster volunteering. In addition, many students have participatedin recent disaster volunteering activities in Japan. According to Suzuki, Suga, and Atsumi (2003), some reports claim that 40–60% of all volunteers in the Kobe
Earthquake relief effort were students. Therefore, we
also focus on the student disaster volunteering that
occurred after the rescue and relief activity phases.
Furthermore, we examine the activities of
fromHUS,6 the student group that also has faculty
members from Osaka University in Japan. The groupmainly conducted its activities in the post-rescue andpost-relief phases of the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake. The group’s activities have been described by Suwa, Atsumi, and Seki (2006) and Suwa
and Atsumi (2006), but these papers are written in
Japanese. In this article, we summarize the same casein English from different theoretical perspectives.
Before commencing our analysis, let us briefly
review the former two articles about fromHUS written
in Japanese. The article by Suwa and Atsumi (2006)
is a record of the group’s activities, which were promoted by the faculty members and students at Osaka
University. Immediately since the quake, the authors

learned from their experiences in their local communities. Therefore, we also recognize disaster volunteering to be a part of disaster mitigation.
Disaster volunteering was still not very popularin Japanese society at the end of the 20th century eventhough Japan is a country prone to disasters, particularly earthquakes. Volunteering gained popularity inJapanese society through the activities of the people
who volunteered after the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake, which killed more than 6,400 people inand around Kobe in 1995. One report claims that over1 million people joined the disaster relief efforts interms of man-days.
As mentioned, there have been many disasters
including earthquakes in Japan; however, ordinary
citizens rarely volunteered to join relief efforts before
the Kobe Earthquake. While it is true that people in
kinship, neighborhood, and professional communities have mutually come forward to provide aid in
the event of a natural disaster, Japanese people do notrecognize these activities as volunteering.4 The appearance of such a large number of volunteers, mostof whom were untrained for disaster relief, was unprecedented in Japan’s history.5
The impact made by the disaster volunteers after
the Kobe Earthquake was so strong that volunteering
became a regular occurrence in Japan thereafter. What
was a rare, praiseworthy activity prior to the Kobe
quake became popular in Japanese society along withthe word “borantia,” a phoneticized version of the
English word “volunteer.” Many disaster nonprofit
organizations were also established, from which twonationwide networks of disaster nonprofit organizations emerged (e.g., Atsumi and Suzuki, 2003; Suzuki, 2006).
Studies on Japanese disaster volunteers were also
conducted immediately after the Kobe Earthquake.
Some research on volunteers working to support
evacuees in shelters has been conducted (e.g., Sugiman, Atsumi, Nagata, and Watanabe, 1995; Yamori,
1997; Shimizu, Mizuta, Akiyama, Ura, Takemura, Nishikawa, Matsui, and Miyato, 1997). All these studies
are written in Japanese; however, there are also a few
articles written in English. Hashimoto (2000) points
out the relationship between the local government anddisaster volunteers in his descriptions of local government activities following the Kobe Earthquake.
However, most of these articles describe the106WAITING AS SUPPORT, LISTENING AS AID

have been promoting volunteering during times ofdisaster based on mid- and long-term perspectives.
They point out that the activities of fromHUS werecharacterized by four features. First, the members offered continuous support for residents of provisional
housing rather than emergency relief for evacuees inshelters. Second, the members traveled to the disaster area from distances of over 400 km. Third, mostof the activities were conducted with the support of
the Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster7(NVNAD), a nonprofit organization. Fourth, themembers had almost exclusive access to the offices ofa consortium of nonprofit organizations, including the
NVNAD, to use as their home office.
On the other hand, Suwa, Atsumi, and Seki(2006) in their report focus on the relationship between nonprofit organizations and individual student
volunteers. They analyze two types of volunteer interests of students in the context of disaster volunteer activity. Their discussion is based on an article about arecent trend in attitude of Japanese university students(Yamaguchi, Masuda, Seki, and Atsumi, 2003.) They
also focus on the students’ learning through disastervolunteering.
Based on this research on fromHUS, we examine
what is important in forging relationships between
volunteers and survivors to promote a participatory
approach in post-rescue and post-relief activities. The
importance of volunteering itself will also be illustrated through this case study.

Nonprofit organizations also played an activerole in the relief activity. Some of the organizations
started activities in the form of cooperation withnationwide networks of disaster nonprofit organizations, and many volunteer centers were launched in
the disaster area with the support of disaster nonprofit
organizations. Additionally, some of these nonprofit
organizations promoted their activities based on midand long-term perspectives. This was because many
people were unable to return to their homes immediately after the disaster, and psychosocial problems
such as rehabilitation and revitalization of communities were important issues that had to be dealt with.
A few weeks after the quake, the NVNAD andanother nonprofit organization formed a consortiumfor the disaster relief known as the “Support Group
from KOBE.”8 The group rented a room in an officebuilding (Photos 1 and 2) and opened an operating

2. Case Study

Photo 1: Front view of the base of the Support Group
from KOBE (Date taken: February 22, 2005)

2.1 Background and Outline
On October 23, 2004, the Mid-Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake caused severe damage in the northern partof Japan. Over 100,000 people were evacuated fromtheir homes to shelters such as gymnasiums. Official
agencies such as the police, the fire department, andthe Japan Self-Defense Forces worked for the rescue
and relief activities and supported the evacuees.
The construction of temporary housing commenced a few days after the quake, and evacuees who
were unable to immediately return to their homes
were moved there about one month later. Surviving
the winter in particular was a critical issue because
the Mid-Niigata prefectural area is known for havingsome of the heaviest snowfalls in the world.

Photo 2: Exterior of the building in which the Support
Group from KOBE was located (Date taken:
May 6, 2006; Photographer: Koichi Suwa)
107

K. SUWA, T. ATSUMI, Y. SEKI

base near an area of temporary housing complexes9 inthe disaster zone. The operating base was not locatedat the same site as the housing complexes because themembers of the support group wanted the residents tobe able to refresh themselves through the different atmosphere at the base from that at the complexes. Thebase was also within walking distance of Nagaoka
Station.10 Figure 1 shows the location of the temporary housing complexes and the operating base.11

Photo 3 shows the side view of the southern part of
the area shown in Figure 1.
Immediately following the quake, the authors
not only promoted but also themselves became involved in volunteering during times of disaster, basedon mid- and long-term perspectives. The first author
launched and managed the fromHUS mailing list (thiswill be discussed in greater detail below) and group.
This author also supported the off-line activities of
fromHUS. The second author has visited the disaster area frequently since the quake, sometimes withmembers of fromHUS. The third author has supported
all the members described above, within or outside
the affected area.
2.2 Activities of the Support Group from
KOBE and fromHUS
The NVNAD, located in Kobe near Osaka, promoted its disaster relief activities immediately after
the earthquake. The second author, a board memberof the NVNAD, visited the affected area on October
24 with the organization’s director.12
Approximately a week after the quake, this author called upon the students of Osaka University tojoin the volunteer efforts. Some students responded
to his appeal and volunteered in Nagaoka City, which
was part of the affected area, with an ex-staff memberof the NVNAD in early November.
On November 29, the authors and the students
who had visited the affected area held a briefing session for the other students. It was at the end of thismeeting that the first author called on the participants at the session to launch the mailing list named“fromHUS,” whose members included faculty and

Figure 1: Map of the area around the base of the Support Group from KOBE in April 2005

Photo 3: Side view of the southern part of the area shown in Figure 1 (Date taken: May 6, 2006; Shooting angle:
south to north; Photographer: Koichi Suwa) The temporary houses are located in the circled areas.
108

WAITING AS SUPPORT, LISTENING AS AID

students of Osaka University. As mentioned above,
the group, which consisted of the members on themailing list, was also known as fromHUS afterward.
The members of fromHUS visited the affectedarea in mid-December and went to a volunteer centerin Nagaoka. Although the Mid-Niigata prefecturalarea was far from Osaka, the members traveled to thedisaster area from over 400 km away via night trains
with financial support from the NVNAD. At that time,the main activities of the volunteers in Nagaoka were
supporting the survivors by moving their household
goods from shelters to temporary houses. However,there were too many volunteers for the work to bedone and the students were therefore unable to work
effectively.
During that visit, the fromHUS volunteers
also joined the activities of the Support Group from
KOBE. At that time, the support group and its basewere not popular among the residents of the temporary housing complexes. Therefore, the main activityof the members was the arrangement and distributionof relief goods and the editing and distribution of fliers for the residents.
In the last few weeks of December 2004, they organized space in the operating base for the residents,
especially for the elderly and those living alone. The
aim was to provide comfort and relief and to alleviate
the residents’ tension and anxiety. They opened a coffee corner in the operating base of the Support Group
from KOBE where they not only provided coffee but
also engaged in various activities to manage the space

better, such as making signboards, arranging furniture, and redecorating the rooms (Photo 4).
The management of the coffee corner was promoted not only as a means of providing refreshments
but also as a means of producing an alternative environment and atmosphere for the residents in the temporary housing complex. In fact, conversations withvisitors from the housing complex over cups of coffee
became one of the most important roles of the members, although it initially appeared to be no more thana way to kill time.
After the 2005 New Year holidays, fromHUS
held its first briefing session on January 13 at Osaka
University. Twenty-one people including nonmembers
attended and discussed the next stage of the group’s
activities. Around January 17, 2005, the 10th anniversary of the Kobe Earthquake, the base was temporarily closed for ten days because the Support Group
from KOBE including the NVNAD had to attend memorial events and activities in and around Kobe. The
activities of fromHUS were also suspended.
By February, the base had become popular withthe residents of the temporary housing complex as aspace where they could relax and feel at ease. Many
residents visited the coffee corner, and the students
reported a good atmosphere. There were also good
relationships forged between the volunteers and theresidents, and some volunteers were even invited formeals by the residents. Some of their activities werereported in the press.13
The fromHUS members had their second briefing session on March 8 at Osaka University where
they discussed the next stage of their activities.
However, they encountered some difficulties because
almost half of the students had to leave the volunteer
activities because of their need to job-hunt. Furthermore, the base was to be closed at the end of April because the lease contract had ended and there was also
a shortage of money. Finally, a nationwide religious
group donated money and manpower to the Support
Group from KOBE, and the base was maintained
for a short period of time mainly by the members of
the religious group. On May 20, 2005, the base wasclosed and the coffee space was moved to the officeof the Chuetsu Fukko Network (its location is shownin Figure 1), a nonprofit organization established after
the quake.
The Support Group from KOBE and the mem-Photo 4: Interior view of the base of the Support
Group from KOBE (Date taken: February
23, 2005; Photographer: Yoshihiro Seki)
The coffee corner was located on the rightside of this photo frame.
109

K. SUWA, T. ATSUMI, Y. SEKI

report to the NVNAD written by a student)

bers of fromHUS promoted other activities such as
visiting each of the temporary homes with gifts ofsweets. They also set up a corner section at the basewhere residents could help themselves to free clothes
and tableware.14 Furthermore, they invited the residents to Kobe Luminarie, an annual light festival heldin Kobe15 in December 2004. All of the activities were
geared towards introducing the residents to the spaceand having them feel an attachment to it.
Through these activities, the NVNAD provided
the students with a solid foundation and showed themthe course of activities. The organization funded somethe traveling expenses and rent of the operating baseof the Support Group from KOBE. The NVNAD also
held a briefing session in Kobe and issued a report on
the activities of the Support Group from KOBE. The
idea to establish a space for a coffee corner was also
proposed by the NVNAD.
After the closure of the base, the members of
fromHUS joined the briefing session of the Support
Group from KOBE on June 5, 2005. Subsequently,
the activities of fromHUS were phased out, but thegroup continued with activities such as foot bathing16 in the temporary housing complexes and public
housing complexes for the people who had lost theirhomes in the quake.

It is important to note here that this type of casual conversation gave the members a glimpse into
the actual living conditions and needs of each victim.
There were also other reports by the students, such as
the following:
A person who just lost the family dog two days
ago has come. According to the person, the dog
was old, but it was under stress because of theearthquake. ([fromHUS][00396] February 6,2005)18
It was heartbreaking to hear that they lost someof their rice bowls and were using the remaining
bowls in turns and washing disposable wooden
chopsticks and using them again and again.19([fromHUS][00136] December 21, 2004)
There appears to be no damage to the townscape and the children are lively, but we stillhear things like“ I lost mementos of my mother”
that naturally come up in their conversation.
([fromHUS][00422] February 12, 2005)
The survivors would never express such sentiments as read in the reports if they were just asked,“Are you having any difficulties as a result of theearthquake?” This is because victims would not admit
their actual needs if questioned in such a blunt manner.
The most significant benefit of the activities was
the construction of comfortable places for the survivors. The residents of the temporary homes wereable to stay there in comfort, without any tension orapprehension. In addition, the place saw a moderately familiar relationship—neither too close nor too
distant—established between the students and theresidents. The voices of the survivors could really beheard in this environment.

2.3 The voices of the residents in thetemporary housing complexes
We can see the effect of the activities of the Support Group from KOBE and fromHUS based on thereports of some students of fromHUS. While it was
optional, the members of fromHUS frequently reported their activities on their mailing list.17
For instance, conversations over coffee were initiated and human ties, which were open to verbal andnonverbal communication, were forged. One student
reported the following:
The effect of coffee is great. I said to the visitors,“Would you like to have some coffee or something?” and more and more people gathered,perhaps because it is simple and easy compared
to tea. We had a nice long chat with visitors, including students of the vocational school in frontof our base and a staff member of the cleaning
company. They also talked to each other about
the extent of the damage they had suffered. (A3. Discussion
Through the active participation of the student
members of fromHUS, an inviting space was managed for the residents of a temporary housing complex, where people gathered and engaged in animated110

WAITING AS SUPPORT, LISTENING AS AID

above how the students waited and listened very
well.24 Of course, the students were prepared for the
residents’ visits, but it was not these preparations
themselves that directly caused the residents as survivors of the earthquake to share what was in theirhearts with the students. It was the hospitality shownby the students in their readiness to listen carefully toeverything that was said that encouraged the residents
to give voice to their feelings and confide in the students.
In this analysis, we have pointed out the importance of waiting in disaster volunteering. Throughout
its activities, the base of the Support Group from
KOBE was known as “Kyoten” (the base) among
the members, but in light of this discussion, we cansay that this base was a “waiting room,” so to speak.
What did the student volunteers wait for in this case?
Primarily, it was visits from the residents and hearing
their real voices as survivors of the earthquake. However, more symbolically, the residents waited for the
students, and more abstractly, it brought about a revitalization of the suffering community. In fact, a student reported that one family waited for the student’s
visit each time with cream puffs. This shows us that,at the end, it was no longer just the students anticipating the visits of residents but vice versa as well.
Through this kind of reversal, their relationshipas disaster volunteers and survivors of the disaster underwent a metamorphosis. In other words, by waiting
and listening, both the volunteers and the residents inthe disaster area were able to break free of their rigid
relationship of aid provider and aid receiver. This is
the phase when actual support and aid after a disastercan start.
In terms of participatory approaches in disaster
reduction, they have mainly focused on survivors participating in disaster reduction programs. However,most disaster professionals and disaster volunteers
are outsiders to the local communities of the disasterarea. They might be sometimes unbidden guests forthe survivors from mid- and long-term perspectives.
We also have to pay attention to the participation ofpeople who plan and implement disaster reduction
programs in the local communities of disaster areas.
In other words, disaster professionals and volunteers
should become welcome guests in disaster-stricken
communities. Waiting and listening will be essential
for them to become welcome guests after the rescue

conversation. We were able to recognize the presenceof an alternative environment and atmosphere for the
residents, based on the students’ reports. A space tomingle, like that mentioned above, is an effective toolfor understanding the needs of disaster victims.
Generally speaking, understanding the individual
needs of each victim is essential because needs diversify and become latent after a rescue and relief effort
in a disaster situation. However, this is usually easier
said than done. Despite these difficulties, it was relatively smooth in this case due to the flexibility of thestudents.
We would like to propose that the most important factor in relationships being forged between thevolunteers and the residents in this case was the attitude of waiting. It is true that the students arranged
the room, prepared coffee, and distributed fliers, butthese activities did not directly make the residents
visit the room. After all of the preparations had been
completed,20 all the students could do was wait.21
Waiting is not a state of inaction. Waiting means
being ready to respond. In this case, the members of
the Support Group from KOBE including the students
maintained their base for the residents almost every
day for five months. Therefore, waiting is not an activity that is easier than others. At the opposite endof the spectrum of waiting might be the many events
that were tenaciously held at the site of the temporary
housing complexes. In fact, the members of fromHUS
often expressed doubts regarding the value of these
events in their mailing list.
We will now focus on a philosophical discussion
about waiting and listening by a philosopher, Washida22 (1999; 2006). He points out that people do not
feel the need to wait and are unable to wait in current
Japanese society. He argues that waiting is importantand so is listening, especially in the care of others.
He argued that the ultimate style of waiting is waiting
without any expectation as in the motif“ En attendant Godot” (Waiting for Godot), 23 a play by SamuelBeckett. Even if there is no expectation, you are still
waiting, ready to handle any unexpected situation. In
addition, he points out that listening is also a kind of
waiting. Listening does not only mean the action ofhearing another human’s voice; it is being ready toreceive any words without any exception.
Waiting and listening are the ultimate expressions of care, and we can see in the case described111

K. SUWA, T. ATSUMI, Y. SEKI

and relief activity phases.

ences.”The NVNAD has its roots in the activity of the
Nishinomiya Volunteer Network (NVN) immediately after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
in 1995 and was renamed NVNAD in 1996. The
NVNAD is a promoter of J-NET, one of the twonationwide networks of disaster nonprofit organizations in Japan.
8
Its Japanese name was “KOBE kara Ouensuru-kai.”
9
These temporary housing complexes were built in avacant lot where a switchyard had once stood andwere called “Soshajo-Kita” (Switchyard-North) and“Soshajo-Minami” (Switchyard-South). According
to the report published by Nagaoka City, 203 families were staying in Soshajo-Kita and 196 families
were staying in Soshajo-Kita as of December 8,
2004. The members of the Support Group from
KOBE and fromHUS mainly supported the residents of these two temporary housing complexes
although there were also other temporary housing
complexes in Nagaoka City.
10This railway station was for the Shinkansen as wellas the conventional JR lines.
11
Two areas are indicated as temporary housing complexes in Figure 1. The northern one in the figure
is Soshajo-Kita and the southern one is SoshajoMinami.
12This author was appointed as the director of the
NVNAD in 2007.
13
The Osaka edition of the Mainichi Shimbun, a national newspaper, reported their activities on February 13, and the Niigata Nippo, a local newspaperof Niigata Prefecture, did so on February 18. These
articles were about the Support Group from KOBE
but the interviewees were members of fromHUS.
14
Most of the survivors’ tableware had been broken
because of the strong shocks of the earthquake.
15
This activity was motivated by a large anonymous
donation by an individual, and the event was given
prominent coverage in the press.
16
In foot-bathing activities, volunteers massage theupper bodies of footbath takers and talk with them.
This activity is mainly for the elderly and its main
aim is to encourage dialogue in the context of thevitalization of the community after a disaster, especially for elderly people.
17
On the fromHUS mailing list, 758 mails had been
exchanged by the end of December 2005.
7

Notes- This paper is based on Suwa, Atsumi, and Seki(2006) and Suwa and Atsumi (2006). A former edition of this article appeared in “ISTR Working Paper
Series, Volume V” of the International Society for
Third Sector Research.
- After the submission of this paper, all of the authors’affiliations changed. The current affiliations are as
follows. Koichi Suwa and Tomohide Atsumi: Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University;
Yoshihiro Seki: School of Sociology, Kwansei
Gakuin University.
1

The report entitled “Heisei 16 nen Niigataken
Chuetsu Daishinsai niyoru Higaijokyo ni tsuite, Dai
173 hou [Damage caused by the 2004 Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake, 173rd release]” is available
on the website of the Niigata Prefectural Government. (http://www.pref.niigata.lg.jp/HTML_Article/173,2.pdf) Accessed on November 24, 2008.
2
The report entitled “Niigataken Chuetsu Daishinsai
Borantia Ukeire Jokyo [Acceptance of volunteers
after the Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake]” isavailable on the website of the Niigata Prefectural Government. (http://www.pref.niigata.lg.jp/
HTML_Simple/200731cyuetsudaishinsaivourasu,0.
pdf) Accessed on November 24, 2008.
3
In this article, we focus only on natural disasters
as these are completely distinguished from otherdisasters including man-made emergencies, e.g.,plane/railway accidents or mass terrorism, in Japanese society. In the context of Japan, “disaster volunteer” means “volunteer in a natural disaster.”
4
These activities have been merely termed “mutual
aid in kinship and neighborhood communities” and“mutual aid among professional communities.”5
It is true that there were some exceptions, such as
people who worked for the rescue and relief activity in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (Suzuki,
2004), but they were merely exceptions.
6
The group was named after the student affiliation
School of Human Sciences and Graduate School of
Human Sciences, Osaka University. The pronunciation of the term “fromHUS” is equivalent to that of
the underlined part of the phrase “from human sci112

WAITING AS SUPPORT, LISTENING AS AID
18

the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake].” Research in Social

In the fromHUS mailing list, the subject ofeach mail was numbered serially. For example,“[fromHUS][00422] February 12, 2005” meansthat it is the 442nd mail sent on February 12, 2005.
19
In every Japanese family, family members normallyeach have their own rice bowls and nondisposable
wooden chopsticks, so this was very unusual.
20
Needless to say, these preparations were part of thenecessary conditions for the outcome of the student
activities.
21
It is true that people other than students can be
involved in disaster volunteering, but practicallyspeaking, it would have been difficult for working adults to wait for a long time for the survivors’
visits in this case. In addition, the survivors anticipated the conversation and visit of young people inthis instance.
22
Based on Washida (1999), Atsumi (2001) discussed
the meaning of the unconditional co-presence ofvolunteers in rescue and relief.
23
Godot is a character in the play.
24
In the title of this article “Waiting as Support, Listening as Aid,” the terms “support” and “aid” arenot clearly differentiated one from another, but weconsider that waiting, let alone listening, is also akind of active approach to dealing with survivors.

Psychology 13(1), 1-12 [in Japanese with an English
abstract].
Sugiman, T., Atsumi, T., Nagata, M., and Watanabe, T.
1995. “Hanshin Daishinsai ni Okeru Hinansho no
Soshikika Purosesu [The process of organizing emergency shelters after the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake: A
participant observation study].” The Japanese Journalof Experimental Social Psychology 35(2), 207-217 [inJapanese with an English abstract].
Suwa, K., Atsumi T., and Seki, Y. 2006. “Gakusei ni yoru
Saigaiji no Borantia Katsudo to Jokyoteki-Kanshin:
Niigata-ken Chuetsu Jishin ni okeru fromHUS no Katsudo kara [Student volunteers active in disaster andcircumstantial interest: Activities of “fromHUS” in the
Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake].” Journal of Volunteer Studies 6, 71-95 [in Japanese with an English
abstract].
Suwa, K., and Atsumi T. 2006. “Daigaku-hatsu no SaigaiBorantia Katsudo no Kioroku: Niigataken-ChuetsuJishin ni okeru fromHUS no Katsudo [A record ofuniversity-launched volunteer activities in disaster:
Activities of “fromHUS” in the Mid-Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake].” Bulletin of Graduate School of Human
Sciences, Osaka University 32, 231-251 [in Japanesewith an English abstract].
Suzuki, I., Suga, M., and Atsumi, T. 2003. “Nihon ni okeru
Saigai Boranthia no Doko: Hanshin-Awaji Daishin-

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We appreciate all of the support for the Support
Group from KOBE, NVNAD, and fromHUS. This
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Scientific Research (Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B); No.19730503 for the first author).

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114