This website has been established in conjunction with the Trinity College (Hartford, CT) History seminar “Disaster Archipelago: Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and the Japanese,” organized by Prof. Jeff Bayliss.  The course description reads as follows:

Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Throughout history, its people have dealt with devastation from volcanic eruptions, frequent earthquakes, and killer tsunamis. This course explores the history of these catastrophes and their aftermath from a variety of perspectives: economic, political, social, and cultural. How have the Japanese people coped with these disasters, in light of shifting political contexts and evolving knowledge of the geologic mechanisms involved? We will explore and discuss a wide variety of primary and secondary sources on Japanese ways of appreciating and dealing with disasters past and present, including scholarly writings, memoirs, news articles, and films – fictional and non. The latter half of the course will be dedicated to an in-depth examination of the March 2011 tsunami and its aftermath.

 Most of all, however, we will grapple with the problems that catastrophes on a grand scale pose for our understanding of the people who suffer them, through the lens of the Japanese experience and a variety of perspectives on it.  To this end, we will read the record of what happened in disasters such as the Great Kantō Earthquake (1923), the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995), and the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (2011) to explore why these events and the suffering they brought about are described in the terms that they are, and what this says about “outsider” views of Japan, as well as the Japanese national self-image.  On an even more fundamental level, we will confront the very human problems that sudden loss and death on a massive scale create for the survivors, and what their reactions might reveal about the human condition.  Throughout the course, we will also confront the question of whether it is even possible to create a history of such events.  Certainly disasters can be discussed in their broader historical contexts, but does this really tell us anything about the way people reacted to the situation at hand, or does it do more to explain the course by which society returned to some semblance of normalcy in the aftermath?  Do disasters have a history, in and of themselves, or are they such aberrations of normal human experience that there is no way to put them in a broader, more universally meaningful context?

The other pages of this blog consist of links to and commentary on internet-based sources on various topics, compiled by groups of students enrolled in the course, groups under the subject heading of each page.  The “class links” page features links to videos, graphics, and other resources that have been presented in previous class meetings.

Please add any comments you may have on the pages found here, as well as questions about the course in the comments box below.

Jeff Bayliss, Associate Professor of History, Trinity College, Hartford CT