Social and Cultural Hazards, from the 3.11 Disaster through Today’s Global Warming: Shifting Conceptions of the Soma Nomaoi Cavalry Event in Fukushima, Japan

Abstract

This case study is an anthropological reflection on the impact of multiple disaster events on the culture and economy of the Hamadōri coastal area of Fukushima, Japan. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown; the pandemic of 2020; and today’s global warming have affected this area’s economic, touristic, and cultural practices, such as the Soma Nomaoi Calvary tradition. Outcomes exemplify the concept of punctuated entropy: a permanent decline in the adaptive flexibility of a human cultural system to the environment brought on by the cumulative impact of periodic disaster events. In the case of Fukushima, efforts to mitigate and recover from these closely occurring disaster events have been only partially successful, and the outcomes provide profound lessons learned regarding the complexity of the recovery process when deep-seated and sustaining cultural practices are disrupted or lost.