Comparative Study on Growth and Decay of Disaster Culture

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As a soft-countermeasure against natural disasters, disaster culture plays an important role to mitigate human and property damages. The questionnaire on disaster culture was conducted in flood prone areas in Kochi. In 1975 and 1976, we had severe flood disasters in the areas. Urbanization has been accelerated since 1970s'. and residents who have no information about the disaster live in these disaster-prone areas. Fortunately, after 1976 Kochi has not had large-scale natural disasters so that it is possible to discuss on the effect of changes of natural and social environmental changes on awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation. The decay of disaster lesson and culture chiefly depend on the difference between the number of opportunities of talking the disaster experience to neighbors, family members and friends and listening comprehension through them. Wisdom of residents on disaster prevention was found in Ino inundated area in which most private houses were built on the leveled-up ground.Moreover, in order to mitigate tsunami disaster, it is necessary to reinforce disaster lesson and social vulnerability as well as construction of hard-countermeasures such as tsunami breakwaters and water gates. Especially, gigantic tsunamis have characteristics of low frequency and high consequence in Japan. Residents in tsunami prone areas usually forget the casualty due to lack of systematic transmission of disaster experiences and lessons from disaster sufferers to next generations. Through questionnaire, the process of decay of tsunami experiences, locality of the disasters on tsunami information and communication were discussed and proposals about growth of disaster culture were presented.