POINT OF VIEW / SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 5/5/2012

Daniel P. Aldrich

The Great East Japan Earthquake, a magnitude-9.0 temblor that triggered a destructive tsunami and an ongoing nuclear crisis, has plunged the nation, and others around the world, into a maelstrom of anxiety. Yet there may be a silver lining to the crisis. Past experience shows that both natural and man-made disasters in Japan have brought out altruism, volunteerism and a renaissance of unofficial civic enthusiasm.

Civil society--the part of any society between market and state, where people work together through informal networks--has been resurgent after each major disaster in Japan over the past hundred years. Now, with the continuing threat of broader radioactive contamination, a million people still huddled without power or even shelter, and thousands yet to be accounted for, this tragedy may trigger a new era in civic and political activity.

If past history is a guide, the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 may prompt an outpouring of citizen involvement in decision making, renewed demands for transparency and vocal expectations of better, stronger governance.

In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed roughly half of the densely populated capital, Tokyo. Striking close to noon, when many children had returned from school for a hot lunch, the quake not only wrecked buildings but sparked fires, which grew into tremendous firestorms. By the time the fires had died four days later, more than 100,000 Tokyo residents were dead.

The population of Tokyo dropped by half over the next year, and then stabilized. By 1930, as the central government was taking its people down the dangerous path of colonization and military aggression across Southeast and East Asia, city officials declared the recovery complete.

Despite nightmarish memories of this immense tragedy and troublesome developments on the international front, there was a lasting positive effect from the Kanto Earthquake: Across Tokyo, neighbors joined together in neighborhood associations, called "chonaikai," which served not only to organize communal efforts but to act as "links" and "bridges" to authorities in city and the national governments. These chonaikai remain an important part of communal life all across Japan today.

In 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck the coastal port city of Kobe, killing more than 6,000 residents and collapsing highways, bridges and homes. First responders could not reach many of the fires, which, in a too-familiar pattern, spread and destroyed thousands of houses, many of which were built of wood in the immediate postwar period.

While the government was slow to respond--many of my friends in the city claim that the gangsters (yakuza) showed up to help long before any military personnel did--volunteers mobilized across Japan. Coming in bicycles, vans, cars and on foot, more than a million visitors ended up in Kobe, feeding the hungry, helping to clear debris and organizing relief and rebuilding efforts.

So great was this renaissance in civil society that it triggered a change in the laws governing how nonprofit organizations (NPOs) could be licensed by the state.

With so much demand, the government lowered the barriers to registration for NPOs and, within a year, thousands of new organizations were state certified.

Recovery from this earthquake and ongoing nuclear crisis will be slow. Given the scope of the damage, the age of most victims and level of devastation, it will take perhaps a decade for Japan to come back. As of this writing, more than 800,000 people remain without electricity, gas or access to fuel. Winter weather remains in force, and the survivors are by and large elderly.

But in the days ahead, it is likely that, just as in the past, civil society will lead the way, pushing the government toward new policies focused not on exports and corporations, but on the quality of lives of citizens. Out of the darkness may come a new era of light. If any nation can come back from disaster, it will be Japan.

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Daniel P. Aldrich is author of "Site Fights" (Cornell University Press, 2008 and 2010) and "Building
Resilience: Social Capital's Role in Disaster Recovery"(forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press). He is an associate professor at Purdue University and a fellow of the Mansfield U.S.-Japan Program for the Future.

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Check out my book SITE FIGHTS at
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4791
Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich
Associate Professor, Political Science, Purdue University http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~daldrich/