Guides to the Digital Archive of Japan's 2011 Disasters: Reference Material

Google Crisis Response Team - Google satellite imagery of the crisis

Recovering Tohoku - Collection of maps by a PhD student at Kobe University

Earthquake/Tsunami Maps Collection - A collection of maps in the JDA visualizing the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, and documenting locations of temporary shelters, relief efforts, and reconstruction progress. Includes hazard maps and before/after imagery. 

Fukushima Radiation Maps Collection - A collection of maps in the JDA tracking the spread of radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Evacuation Zone Maps Collection - The evacuation zones have been rearranged several times over the two years since the TEPCO Fukushima Dai'ichi Nuclear Accident.  This collection gathers evacuation zone maps from the METI website since 2011.

Before and After the Quake and Tsunami - Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami from New York Times. Compare left (before the earthquake) and right (after the earthquake).

In English

Six-Month Timeline Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, nippon.com (March 11, 2011 to September 11, 2011) 

Japan Earthquake: Timeline of the Disaster, from Tsunami to Nuclear Crisis, The Telegraph (March 11-15, 2011)

Japan Nuclear Emergency: A Timeline of the Crisis, The Telegraph (Minute-by-minute from March 11-17, 2011)

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Timeline, CNN World (Minute-by-minute on March 11, 2011)

1 Year Later: A Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Timeline, Scientific American (Interactive timeline from March 11, 2011 to March 11, 2012)

Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, Wikipedia (March 7, 2011 to August 26, 2013)

In Japanese 

311 Memories, Asanobu Kitamoto, National Institute of Informatics (Interactive timeline from March 11, 2011 to the present)

Japan Quake Map, Paul Nicholls (March 11, 2011 to the present)

Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Accident Timeline, Asanobu Kitamoto, National Institute of Informatics (Radiation levels from March 11-25, 2011) 

Report from the Tomioka Evacuation Center II, ZaikyoTomiokaTomonokai (Minute-by minute narrative and photograh account from March 11, 2011 to April 4, 2011)

Bibliographic Database

An annotated bibiography of March 11 resources, compiled by the not-for-profit educational project of the Forum for the History of Science in Asia.

               Teach 3.11 Bibliography

A bibliographic database developed by MCEER, covering earthquakes, earthquake engineering, natural hazard and disaster mitigation, and related topics. 

               MCEER QUAKELINE® 

Anthropology

Ryang, Sonia. “The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Massacre of Koreans in 1923: Notes on Japan’s Modern National Sovereignty.” Anthropological Quarterly 76, no. 4 (2003): 731-48.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and Radiation

Braw, Monica. “Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Voluntary Silence.” In Laura Hein and Mark Selden, (eds.) Living with the bomb: American and Japanese cultural conflicts in the Nuclear Age. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.

Dower, John W. “The Bombed: Hiroshimas and Nagasakis in Japanese Memory.” Diplomatic History 19, no. 2 (1995): 275-95.

George, Timothy. “Fukushima in Light of Minamata,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 11, No 5, March 12, 2012. 

Penney, Matthew. “Nuclear Nationalism and Fukushima,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 11, No 2, March 12, 2012.

Pritchard, Sara. “An Environmental Disaster: Nature, Technology, and Politics at Fukushima.” Environmental History (2012): 1-25.

The National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.“The official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission,” 2012.

Orr, James. The Victim as Hero: Ideologies of Peace and National Identity in Postwar Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.

Yoshimi, Shun’ya and Shi-Lin Loh. “Radioactive Rain and the American Umbrella.” The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 02 (2012): 319-31.

Health

George, Timothy. “Fukushima in Light of Minamata,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 11, No 5, March 12, 2012. 

History

Allen, Michael J. “The Price of Identity: the 1923 Kantō Earthquake and Its Aftermath.” Korean Studies 20 (1996): 64-93.

BBC Horizon Documentary. "Japan Earthquake: A Horizon Special with Iain Stewart." 

Borland, Janet. “Stories of Ideal Japanese Subjects from the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923.” Japanese Studies 25:1 (2005): 21-34.

Borland, Janet. “Capitalising on Catastrophe: Reinvigorating the Japanese State with Moral Values through Education following the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake.” Modern Asian Studies 40, no. 4 (2006): 875-907.

Clancey, Gregory K. “The Meiji Earthquake: Nature, Nation, and the Ambiguities of Catastrophe.” Modern Asian Studies 40, no. 4 (2006): 909-51.

Davis, Mike. Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. 1st ed. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.

Kingston, Jeffrey, ed. Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan: Response and Recovery after Japan’s 3/11. Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies, 2012.

Smits, Gregory. “Danger in the Lowground: Historical Context for the March 11, 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami.” The Asia-Pacific Journal (9:20:4).

Smits, Gregory. “Shaking Up Japan: Edo Society and the 1855 Catfish Prints.” Journal of Social History 39, no. 4 (2006): 1045-78.

Zeilinga, de Boer, Jelle, and Donald Theodore Sanders. Earthquakes in Human History : The Far-Reaching Effects of Seismic Disruptions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Mass media and News Reporting

Penney, Matthew. “Nuclear Nationalism and Fukushima,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 11, No 2, March 12, 2012.

Popular Culture

Napier, Susan. “Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster From Godzilla to Akira.” Journal of Japanese Studies 19, no. 2 (1993): 327-51.

Seismology

Clancey, Gregory. “Japanese Seismicity and the Limits of Prediction;”  all from The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 02 (2012): 313-318. 

Dudden, Allen. “The Ongoing Disaster.” The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 02 (2012): 333-359.  

Zeilinga, de Boer, Jelle, and Donald Theodore Sanders. Earthquakes in Human History : The Far-Reaching Effects of Seismic Disruptions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Social Media

Jamie Williams, “Social Media’s Role as Crucial Lifeline During Japan Disaster,” Mediashift, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/04/social-medias-role-as-a-crucial-lifeline-during-japan-disaster103.html.

Sonia Paul, “How to Follow the Japan Quake and Tsunami Anniversary on Social Media,” http://mashable.com/2012/03/10/japan-tsunami-anniversary/.

Sociology

Solnit, Rebecca. “The Uses of Disasters,” Harpers (October 2005): 31-37.

Disaster Education Websites

Web resources on the subjects of earthquakes, natural disasters, and engineering topics 

               Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research            

                              Natural Disaster Lesson Plans & Activities  

                              IRIS: Teachable Moments - Honshu Earthquake & Tsunami 

                              State of Oregon: Oregon Tsunami Resources for Kids & Teachers 

                              IOC / UNESCO: Tsunami Teacher                              

                              USGS: Educational Slide Set for the Tohoku, Japan Earthquake

University Course Syllabi

Harvard University, Fall 2013 - Japan’s 2011 Disasters and Their Aftermath: A workshop on digital research

Course website
Course blog

Links to Twitter users regularly commenting on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis.

Disaster Education Websites

University Course Syllabi