The Possibility of Geographic Area and Time Distribution of DRR Education to Represent Disaster Collective Memory: a Time Geographic Study of Newspapers in Japan

EasyChair Preprint 8963, version 3

Abstract

Disaster collective memory is one of the collective memories. Collective memory can appear in a newspaper article. We assumed that disaster collective memory could also appear as DRR education. As people forget about the disaster, DRR education decreases. We examined articles (in a newspaper in one company in Japan) containing the keyword “DRR education ([bosai kyouiku] in Japanese)” in the local section. Area names and publication dates were used to identify prefectures and time periods, and plotted on a timeline and in a geographic space. The results showed that the number of articles increased immediately after the disaster, but gradually decreased as time passed. Articles were observed mainly in the affected prefectures, but few were found in the surrounding prefectures. This study suggests that (1) the degree of disaster collective memory (the degree of DRR education) increases immediately after a disaster, but quickly decreases, and (2) disaster collective memory (DRR education) is consolidated in the disaster area but does not easily transfer beyond this region. These findings could be in line with folk beliefs of the difficulty in keeping the memory of the disaster from fading away with time, as well as the challenge of sharing an experience or a lesson with those not affected. Finally, we discuss the limitations and future directions of this study.

Keyphrases: Collective Memmory, DRR Education, Newspaper, time geography

@booklet{EasyChair:8963,
  author    = {Ryo Saito and Mari Yasuda and Toshiaki Muramoto and Takashi Oda},
  title     = {The Possibility of Geographic Area and Time Distribution of DRR Education to Represent Disaster Collective Memory: a Time Geographic Study of Newspapers in Japan},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 8963},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2022}}