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Book Cover
E-book
Author Schencking, J. Charles, author

Title The great Kantō earthquake and the chimera of national reconstruction in Japan / J. Charles Schencking
Published New York : Columbia University Press, [2013]
©2013

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Description 1 online resource (xxii, 374 pages) : illustrations
Series Contemporary Asia in the World
Contemporary Asia in the world.
Contents Cataclysm : the earthquake disaster as a lived and reported experience -- Aftermath : the ordeal of restoration and recovery -- Communication : constructing the earthquake as a national tragedy -- Admonishment : interpreting catastrophe as divine punishment -- Optimism : dreams for a new metropolis amid a landscape of ruin -- Contestation : the fractious politics of reconstruction planning -- Regeneration : forging a new Japan through spiritual renewal and fiscal retrenchment -- Readjustment : rebuilding Tokyo from the ashes
Summary In September 1923, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated eastern Japan, killing more than 120,000 people and leaving two million homeless. Using a rich array of source material, J. Charles Schencking tells for the first time the graphic tale of Tokyo's destruction and rebirth. In emotive prose, he documents how the citizens of Tokyo experienced this unprecedented calamity and explores the ways in which it rattled people's deep-seated anxieties about modernity. While explaining how and why the disaster compelled people to reflect on Japanese society, he also examines how reconstruction encouraged the capital's inhabitants to entertain new types of urbanism as they rebuilt their world. Some residents hoped that a grandiose metropolis, reflecting new values, would rise from the ashes of disaster-ravaged Tokyo. Many, however, desired a quick return of the city they once called home. Opportunistic elites advocated innovative state infrastructure to better manage the daily lives of Tokyo residents. Others focused on rejuvenating society--morally, economically, and spiritually--to combat the perceived degeneration of Japan. Schencking explores the inspiration behind these dreams and the extent to which they were realized. He investigates why Japanese citizens from all walks of life responded to overtures for renewal with varying degrees of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance. His research not only sheds light on Japan's experience with and interpretation of the earthquake but challenges widespread assumptions that disasters unite stricken societies, creating a "blank slate" for radical transformation. National reconstruction in the
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Kanto Earthquake, Japan, 1923.
Disaster relief -- Government policy -- Japan -- History -- 20th century
City planning -- Social aspects -- Japan -- Tokyo -- History -- 20th century
HISTORY -- Asia -- Japan.
HISTORY -- Asia -- Central Asia.
City planning -- Social aspects
Disaster relief -- Government policy
SUBJECT Tokyo (Japan) -- History -- 20th century
Subject Japan
Japan -- Tokyo
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012048647
ISBN 9780231535069
0231535066