Relocation After Tsunamis in the Sanriku Area and the Condition of Fishing Villages Two Years After the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 46

Chapter 4
Relocation After Tsunamis in the Sanriku
Area and the Condition of Fishing Villages
Two Years After the 2011 Great East Japan
Tsunami
Anawat Suppasri , Mari Yasuda , Yoshi Abe , Yo Fukutani ,
Fumihiko Imamura , and Nobuo Shuto
Abstract The 2011 Great East Japan tsunami severely damaged or destroyed most
of the fi shing ports and facilities along the Sanriku coast. Reconstruction is ongo-
ing, and a relocation plan has already been enacted. Interviews with fi shermen in
three fi shing villages were performed to obtain reports on current situations as well
as opinions and problems. For each village, information regarding reconstruction
after historical tsunamis and the 2011 tsunami were obtained, and comparisons
were made amongst the target villages. A land ownership problem was found in
Tadakoshi village. Moving to high ground was proposed for the fi rst time after the
2011 tsunami in Niranohama village. Housing relocation occurred in some parts of
Tadakoshi and Yagawa after historical tsunamis in the Sanriku area, but the whole
village will be relocated to high ground in the future, as lessons from the 2011
tsunami revealed that the tsunami inundation area was much larger. In general, all
of the villages are still facing problems resulting from land subsidence where the
ports are partly submerged during high tide. Although there are some small differ-
ences in detail, the three villagers have the same desire to move the entire commu-
nity to high ground, making high seawalls unnecessary because there will be no
more houses on the low land area. Some disagreement regarding the height of
seawalls remains between coastal residents and local governments.
Keywords 2011 Great East Japan tsunami ￿ Sanriku areas ￿ Reconstruction ￿
Fishing Villages