<論説>三・一一複合災害における避難の地理空間 : 「フィールド」体験と実践の記録から (特集 : 災害)

Abstract

本稿では、東日本大震災に伴う避難、移住、子どもの教育環境の変化に着目し、その地理的現象の分析の一端を提示する。複合災害の実態を詳らかにするため、構造的把握によるマクロな視点と、個人体験というミクロな視点から、重層的な空間スケールの分析を試みる。そのためにまず、被災地域と縁の深い筆者が、葛藤を覚えながらも、土地勘、地の利を活かし、地理学的実践に結実するまでの経緯を描写する。次に、混乱を伴った被災直後の避難状況を、聞き取り講査、実体験、地図統計分析から提示する。さらに、災害後の学校教育に焦点を当て、学習環境の変化を余儀なくされる子どもたちの実態を視覚的・空間的に分析する。最後に、これらを通じて、被災地域において外部者であるはずの地理学者／フィールドワーカーが、被災地から遠く離れた人々と被災者との結びつきを媒介する存在となりうることを指摘した上で、災害における地理学研究者の役割を展望する。

This study discusses the geographical space of evacuation and displacement in northeastern Japan following the multiple disasters caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (magnitude 9.0) on March 11, 2011 from the viewpoint of the author as a geographer who has personal connections with the affected areas. The author grew up in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, an area that was affected by multiple predicaments, including the damaging effects of the earthquake, the tsunami, and the accidents of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Some of the author's family members had to evacuate their home temporarily, and they spent time with him and other relatives in Tokyo. Additionally, the author spent many years in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, during his undergraduate and graduate years. Drawing ok such personal experience and previous academic interests in migration, displacement, and education for children in the discipline of geography, the author engaged in personal and academic practices to assist in the response to and recovery of the affected areas. The author is, on the one hand, an insider who has strong personal ties to those affected, and on the other, a fieldworker, and hence, an outsider, who was required to document phenomena scientifically and objectively, to examine the disaster. First, following more than 100 days of field experience in Tohoku during the first year of the recovery efforts, which began in March 2011, the author describes his field experience in the affected areas by looking back at the early days when he first set foot in the coastal communities hit by the tsunami. Then, the article focuses on the situations of the evacuations in and outside of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, and describes what it was like at one evacuation shelter. In addition, based on interviews and "participatory" observations obtained while the author accompanied his family members during their evacuation, the article details a voluntary evacuation. The study is based on documentation compiled through interviews, participation, and mapping. Moreover, it discusses the importance of geo-spatial information, knowledge, and geographical imagination in crises of communications as one of the lessons learned from the panic and miscommunication observed in Iwaki City and other areas around the radiation security zones. The study also looks at the state of evacuees in the long term, particularly that of the Fukushima natives accompanied by children. Spatial analyses conducted by visualization of the phenomenon using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) describe the scale and space of migration of the evacuees of Fukushima, to show the spatial impacts of displacement and relocation. More particularly, the possible reasons why those students who suddenly had to relocate themselves away from their familiar neighborhoods found themselves in unstable learning environments are investigated. The author discusses the idea that in times of disaster, the geographer/fieldworker, as a stranger, can bridge the gaps between the people in the affected area and those who are far away from it. Geographers can inspire those who are outside the disaster area to mobilize their geographical imaginations to become psychologically close to and empathize with those who have been hit by disasters. Such imaginings of the affected zones could be used to replace unnecessary or harmful rumors and miscommunications with active and accurate individual understandings and analyses of the risks of the disasters. Geographical imagining could also possibly lead outsiders to take actions to aid those in need, across borders, much like what was observed in the efforts made by global citizens for Tohoku from afar.