Japan - Aftermath of a catastrophe - Cultural Perspectives

LaMenchos

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Japan - Aftermath of a catastrophe - Cultural Perspectives

March 27, 2011, 09:53 AM

On how Japan copes with its dead and the Japanese struggle through the disruption in their personal and social realms

 After quake, Japanese grapple with honoring the dead they can't see
Holding a traditional Japanese funeral is difficult when there's no body.

By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
March 22, 2011, 6:39 p.m.

Reporting from Miyako, Japan? Shoichi Nakamura is having trouble sleeping and eating. Her brother, sister-in-law and their child have been missing for more than a week. She's been to three evacuation centers and pored over countless lists at disaster centers.

That's left her with a dilemma she shares with a growing number of Japanese in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami: When do you give up hope that your relatives are alive? And how do you mark a death in tradition-bound Japan without a body to cremate?

"I think the tsunami took my brother," said Nakamura, 58, who works at a cleaning service, her voice barely audible as she huddled on a blanket among other evacuees in the Yamaguchi Elementary School gym, her slippers placed neatly on the edge. "But another part of me doesn't want to give up searching. I'm sick wondering what to do."

Full article - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-death-20110323,0,1107278.story
Tags: body, burial, coping, cremation, death, earthquake, tsunami
LaMenchos

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April 24, 2011, 08:32 AM

After a catastrophe - Cultural Perspectives

Displaced by disaster, Japanese contend with the big city

After weeks in makeshift shelters, people are moving into more stable quarters, many far from home, in bigger cities where the pace is fast, the cost high, job skills unfamiliar.

Displaced by disaster, Japanese contend with the big city

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-town-city-20110421,0,5748769.story

Displaced by disaster, Japanese contend with the big city
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