When the Earth Roars: Lessons from the History of Earthquakes in Japan

摘要

In When the Earth Roars, Gregory Smits sets out to examine the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeast coast on March 11, 2011, but he does so within the context of a broader analysis of Japan's major earthquakes since 1611. This novel approach, which is the first of its kind in English to take a longer, integrated view of so many seismic events, analyzes whether earthquakes have the ability to transform Japanese society. Smits is largely concerned with the broad social circumstances that "determine the longer-term impacts of natural disasters and the way they are perceived in retrospect" (p. 3). The emphasis on perception is evident throughout, for his narrative characterizes earthquakes as chaotic, unpredictable events that cannot be forecast, despite the many historical efforts by survivors to identify natural earthquake predictors. "In this sense," he argues, "history does not repeat itself" (p. (ⅹⅱ)).