This is an unusual collection of essays by Delaney, an environmental anthropologist. Tohoku is the term for the northeast region of Japan's main island of Honshu, the site where the infamous earthquake and tsunami of March 11,2011 (3/11) had the most devastating impact. Some chapters are drawn from earlier ethnographic fieldwork conducted for the author's 2003 dissertation, while others are based on interviews with survivors of the 3/11 disaster, which destroyed local economies and took thousands of lives. Readers learn, for example, that Miyagi Prefecture, where this research was located, suffered 60 percent of all casualties (10,471 deaths). Given that this is an area with its own unique cultural beliefs and rituals, the background chapters stemming from older research on seaweed harvesters and community lifestyles provide readers with useful context. Well written and empathetic, the short narratives from survivors are the most valuable. Also included are discussions of the gendered nature of coastal work and of government reconstruction policies and outcomes. This study is best for students and scholars of studies of Japan, disaster studies, and environmental studies. Recommended. General readers through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Life Beyond the Tohoku Disasters beautifully narrates the rich history and way of life of seaweed fishing communities in northern Japan. Based on her long-term ethnographic engagement with those coastal residents before and after the 3.11 disaster, Alyne Delaney convincingly depicts their experiences of changes, challenges, and even joy, and how their quotidian practices allowed them to cultivate resilience.

Satsuki Takahashi, author of Fukushima Futures: Survival Stories in a Repeatedly Ruined Seascape

With great compassion and commitment rooted in decades of iterant, intimate engagement, Alyne Delaney paints a vivid picture of a rural Japanese culture that long received little attention in academia: the world of local fishers and nori seaweed cultivators in the Tohoku region – both before, during, and after 3.11. This book is about more than the multiple disasters of March 2011 and their consequences, as Delaney’s intimate knowledge and long-time connections allow her to artfully portray these local communities before as much as accompany them throughout the struggles of disasters and reconstruction. The book also clearly highlights the disruptive forces of reconstruction policies, which altered the landscape and the organization of work more than the earthquake and tsunami. Nevertheless, as she stresses the resilience, adaptability, and drive for autonomy of her proponents, Delaney does much more than create a moving memorial of a local fishing culture lost in disaster, leaving us with the hope that this coastal life will continue and evolve, cautiously reconnecting with the sea, be it from behind gargantuan seawalls and in new corporatized forms of engaging with the ocean.

Sonja Ganseforth, Leipzig University, Institute for Geography

Delaney’s deeply researched ethnography affords invaluable insights into the everyday lives and work of residents in coastal communities in northeastern Japan with a special focus on fishers and their families. This monograph also portrays ongoing social change and the remarkable resilience of residents in Tohoku. This grounded longitudinal analysis highlights both the challenges faced over time and the positive transformation of communities in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

Susanne Klien, Hokkaido University