JAPAN COPES WITH CALAMITY

Dear friends,

With apologies for cross-posting: On behalf of my fellow co-editors, Brigitte Steger and David H. Slater, and all our contributors, I am delighted to announce the publication today of our book, Japan Copes with
Calamity: Ethnographies of the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disasters of March 2011. It brings together nine varied ethnographic studies from the disaster region with a pair of introductory chapters framing the studies in terms of Japanese society and anthropological writing on disasters.
Full details of the book may be viewed at the website of the publisher, Peter Lang:
http://www.peterlang.com?430922. An electronic edition will shortly be available. The contents list is at the bottom of this notice.
A formal launch party will be held by the Japan Foundation in London, on Wednesday, November 20 at 6.30pm. Admission is free but booking is essential:
http://www.jpf.org.uk/whatson.php#596
There will also be a formal launch party a little later in Tokyo; details to be announced. Meanwhile I will have a small number of copies available at a large discount at the AJJ conference (Anthropology of Japan, in Japan) to be held on November 9-10 at International Christian University in Tokyo.
http://www.ajj-online.net/www.ajj-online.net/Blog/Entri
es/2013/10/16_AJJ_2013_Annual_Meeting_Program.html

A Japanese edition of the book, Higashi-Nihon Dai-Shinsai no Jinruigaku: Tsunami, genpatsu jiko to hisaishatachi no 'sono go' (Anthropology of the Great Eastern Japan Disaster: The tsunami, the nuclear accident and what happened next to the victims) has already been published, by Jinbun Sho'in of Kyoto.
http://www.jimbunshoin.co.jp/book/b108281.html
It has been more than two-and-a-half years since 3.11, but as anyone following the news will know, the Great Tohoku Disasters are very far from over. We hope these ethnographic reports from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima will contribute to improving understanding of this very complex event.

Tom Gill
Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama, Japan

Japan Copes with Calamity: Contents

* Tom Gill/Brigitte Steger/David H. Slater: 'The 3.11 Disasters'
* David H. Slater: 'Urgent Ethnography'
* Brigitte Steger: 'Solidarity and Distinction through Practices of Cleanliness in Tsunami Evacuation Shelters in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture'
* Nathan J. Peterson: 'Adapting Religious Practice in Response to Disaster in Iwate Prefecture'
* Johannes Wilhelm and Alyne Delaney: 'No Homes, No Boats, No Rafts: Miyagi Coastal People in the Aftermath of Disaster'
* David McNeill: 'Them versus Us: Japanese and International Reporting of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis'
* Ikeda Yoko: 'The Construction of Risk and the Resilience of Fukushima in the Aftermath of the Nuclear Power Plant Accident'
* Morioka Rika: 'Mother Courage: Women as Activists between a Passive Populace and a Paralyzed Government'
* Tom Gill: 'This Spoiled Soil: Place, People and Community in an Irradiated Village in Fukushima Prefecture'
* Tuukka Toivonen: 'Youth for 3.11 and the Challenge of Dispatching Young Urban Volunteers to North-eastern Japan'
* David H. Slater: 'Moralities of Volunteer Aid: The Permutations of Gifts and their Reciprocals.'
* Brigitte Steger: Epilogue: 'Still Missing.'