Roy Starrs, Ph.D. (1986), University of British Columbia, teaches at University of Otago, New Zealand. His recent publications include Modernism and Japanese Culture (Palgrave, 2011) and, as editor, Politics and Religion in Modern Japan (Palgrave, 2011) and Rethinking Japanese Modernism (Brill, 2012).
"Editor Starrs has put together a comprehensive look at the Japanese cultural response to the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disasters. The book includes contributions from a diverse array of international scholars of Japanese religion, anthropology, intellectual history, literature, and popular music. The chapters cover a variety of themes, including the idea in many religions that disaster is âheavenâs punishment,â or tembatsu; responses to past disasters, including major earthquakes and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the importance of the use of Twitter by some of the most important post-3/11 poets. Summing Up: Recommended. Best for advanced students of intellectual and cultural history." - E. L. Hirsch, Providence College [This review appeared in the March 2015 issue of CHOICE. Copyright 2015 American Library Association]
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Cultural Responses to Disaster in Japan
Roy Starrs, University of Otago
PART ONE: CULTURAL RESPONSES TO THE TRIPLE DISASTER OF MARCH 2011
1 Natureâs Blessing, Natureâs Wrath: Shinto Responses to the Disasters of 2011 Aike P. Rots, University of Oslo
2 Gods, Dragons, Catfish, and Godzilla: Fragments for a History of Religious Views on Natural Disasters in Japan Fabio Rambelli, University of California, Santa Barbara
3 Buddhism: The Perfect Religion for Disasters? Brian Victoria, International Research Center for Japanese Studies
4 Post-3/11 Literature in Japan Roman Rosenbaum, University of Sydney
5 These Things Here and Now: Poetry in the Wake of 3/11 Jeffrey Matthew Angles, Western Michigan University
6 âShake, Rattle and Rollâ: Responses to 3/11 â Constructing Community Through Music and the Music Industry Henry Johnson, University of Otago
7 Learning that Emerges in Times of Trouble: a Few Cases from Japan Joy Hendry, Professor Emerita, Oxford Brookes University
8 Observations on Geomentality in Japan and New Zealand Ken Henshall, University of Canterbury
PART TWO: TOWARDS A WIDER PERSPECTIVE â JAPANESE CULTURAL RESPONSES TO EARLIER DISASTERS
9 âAll Shook Upâ: Post-religious Responses to Disaster in Murakami Harukiâs after the quake Jonathan Dil, Chuo University
10 Disaster and National Identity: The Textual Transformations of Japan Sinks Rebecca Suter, University of Sydney
11 Belated Arrival in Political Transition: 1950s Films on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Yuko Shibata, University of Otago
12 Hiroshima Rages, Nagasaki Prays: Nagai Takashiâs Catholic Response to the Atomic Bombing Kevin M. Doak, Georgetown University
13 The Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 and Poetry Leith Morton, Tokyo Institute of Technology
14 Proletarian Writers and the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 Mats Karlsson, University of Sydney
15 The âSilenced Nexusâ: Female Mediation in Modern Japanese Literature of Disaster Janice Brown, University of Colorado Boulder
All interested in Japanese culture, religion, literature, history, anthropology, and music, and in the effects of natural and man-made disasters on human culture and civilization.