COVID-19 and Disaster Volunteers

Yoshihiro Seki
Professor, School of Sociology/ Steering Committee Member, Institute of Disaster Area
Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin University

In Japan, where heavy rain disasters seem to be occurring every summer in recent years,
disaster volunteers have become an “essential presence” in rehabilitation and reconstruction.
This has two meanings. The first is the institutional meaning in that disaster volunteers areneeded as an “unpaid labor force” because the national government and other authorities
alone cannot fully take care of the rapid physical restoration of disaster areas. In response tosuch a situation, non-governmental organizations have formed networks, aiming torehabilitate and reconstruct things as quickly as possible for victims and disaster areas. This
new disaster relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction mechanism has been created byapplying the lessons learnt from disaster experience since the Hanshin and Awaji earthquake
disaster.
The other meaning is supportive: following a disaster, volunteers make great efforts toward
rebuilding peopleʼs everyday lives as a whole. Those of us who have experienced a great
number of disasters are well aware of the fact that an everyday life that is harmed by disasterdoes not recover by restoring the physical living environment alone. The ones who pick up
the “voices” of disaster victims and handle them independently and humanely, in a way thatthe authorities and public services cannot fully cover, are disaster volunteers.
During the current heavy rain disasters in Kyushu, many volunteers were needed in bothsenses of the word, but due to COVID-19, their activities were limited to “residents in theprefecture.” Therefore, we often saw news reports about “not having enough volunteers.”
Perhaps not a small number of people felt a certain sense of discomfort at hearing these© 2020 Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin Universityreports. “Volunteering is something people do on their own initiative, so saying that therearenʼt enough is management-side logic,” and so on. This discomfort originates in the thoughtthat volunteers act on a logic different from that of efficiency and should not be limited onlyto tasks that require efficiency, such as shoveling mud or removing disaster debris.
Being the victim of a disaster means suffering damage to things that had been “natural” ineveryday life. These “natural” things are the cornerstone that gives us the confidence to leadour everyday lives. The human involvement of disaster volunteers reminds us once again of
the meaning of our own existence in the form of human connections with disaster victims. It
gives rise to the feeling that “itʼs okay for me to be here.” That becomes the impetus forrebuilding the “natural” things that had been lost in the disaster. Confidence in the meaningof our own existence leads to the confirmation that the things that are here today will continue
to be here tomorrow. This faith in temporal continuity itself becomes the foundation for whatis “natural.” Therefore, the things we can do as volunteers should include activities aside fromgoing to the concerned site immediately after a disaster and beginning relief work there.
In our connections with other people, we live with the confidence in tomorrow on thepremise of the things that are “natural.” However, the COVID crisis demands that we keep
our distance from other people. Nevertheless, this does not mean cutting off connections. We
may be solitary right now, but we are not alone. I believe that we must understand once again
the importance of connections even if we cannot go to sites, and turn this into an opportunity
to think of ways to connect.
November 2020

© 2020 Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin University