Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Fatma Ozdogan, PhD Candidate & Researcher, School of Architecture, Université de Montréal
In April 2012, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was found on Graham Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of British Columbia. It belonged to Ikuo Yokoyama, a survivor of the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan a year earlier, in March 2011. Yokoyama lost his home and three family members.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the earthquake.
On March 11, 2011 a magnitude-9.0 earthquake occurred off Japan’s northeastern coast. It triggered a tsunami that devastated coastal communities and caused significant damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Almost 20,000 people were killed, and economic losses exceeded US$235 billion. Fifteen years later, the disaster remains a reference point in public debate because of the unprecedented damage, and because of the long-term questions it raised about risk, responsibility and preparedness.
Yokoyama’s motorcycle has since become part of a memorial culture dedicated to the 2011 disaster. After receiving offers to have it returned, Yokoyama decided that the motorcycle should be exhibited at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, where it still stands today as a memorial to those whose lives were affected by the disaster.
The limitations of infrastructure become visible not only in moments of failure, but also in what survives and circulates afterward. And in Japan, the motorcycle has become part of a broader conversation about what remains after catastrophes, along with other objects swept away by the tsunami and later discovered in different parts of the world.
Importance of risk awareness
Japan has long been widely regarded as a global leader in disaster risk reduction. Advanced seismic engineering standards, earthquake-resistant buildings, extensive early warning systems and massive coastal defences such as seawalls and floodgates have been designed to protect the disaster-prone country.
Reconstruction in tsunami-affected areas involved major planning decisions. In many communities, neighbourhoods were relocated to higher ground or further inland, changing multi-generational settlement patterns.
New residential areas were developed in highland areas, while some low-lying coastal zones were converted to green buffers, agricultural land or designated memorial spaces.
Yet, as the tsunami showed, physical infrastructure alone cannot eliminate risk. People’s risk awareness, preparedness and willingness to act swiftly — often informed by local knowledge and disaster education — also play decisive roles in preventing the loss of life.
This understanding directly shaped Life is a Miracle, an initiative launched in Yamamoto, a coastal town severely affected by the tsunami.
During our field research on disaster memory practices in the Tohoku region, we visited the project’s exhibition space and spoke with people involved in documenting the disaster’s legacy.
By using Yokoyama’s motorcycle as an example, it highlights how life itself is fragile and valuable, and how tsunami survival is shaped by warning systems, evacuation infrastructure, land-use decisions, housing location and institutional choices made well before a disaster occurs.
The motorcycle’s journey gained meaning in a country where major catastrophes are integrated into public life. Recurrent earthquakes and tsunamis, along with fires and wartime destruction, have shaped not only city planning policy but also disaster education and commemoration. Across these histories, memory in Japan serves a practical purpose, linking past events to present awareness and future responsibility.
Life is a Miracle puts this claim into practice through clothing bearing its name, each individually numbered and linked to dialogue-based activities that document experiences of loss, displacement and rebuilding and emphasize disaster preparedness. These items prompt conversation in everyday settings. The motorcycle acts as a tangible entry point for reflection on disaster preparedness and memory.
Memory infrastructure
Across the Tohoku region most affected by the tsunami, memorial museums, monuments and preserved school buildings present detailed accounts of evacuation decisions and reconstruction processes. These sites anchor memory in place. Visitors encounter physical traces of the disaster alongside guided tours intended to encourage disaster preparation and reduce future loss.
The 3.11 Densho Road project connects many of these memorial sites through a regional network, mapping their locations across northeastern Japan and sharing information about disaster memory sites and relevant workshops, guided tours and disaster educational programs. More than 300 such sites are registered today.
At the national level, the NIPPON Disaster Prevention Assets framework, launched in 2024 by Japan’s government, certifies facilities and activities that convey past disaster experiences and lessons in accessible ways.
Memorial museums, preserved disaster sites and initiatives such as storyteller programs, disaster-prevention tours and public events can receive this designation after review by an expert committee. The program aims to encourage residents to treat disaster risk as a personal responsibility, motivating people to understand hazards in their communities and take proactive evacuation and preparedness actions.
Yet sustaining disaster memory in Japan also depends on individual and community efforts. Kataribe, survivor-storytellers who share their experiences with visitors and younger generations, play a vital role in this process. Their accounts convey emotion, hesitation and decision-making under pressure in ways that curated exhibitions cannot fully reproduce.
The Life is a Miracle project is part of a larger network of memory infrastructure in Japan. It is one node in a system that treats the remnants of disasters as tools for education and raising awareness. Memory sites enable discussions about disaster risks and preparedness. By sharing experiences and lessons learned, as well as healing for those affected, they make a constant dialogue possible.
Countries around the world face increasing exposure to floods, wildfires and extreme weather. Physical recovery after disasters is often accompanied by public attention that fades within months.
The Japanese case shows how sustaining lessons requires infrastructure. A well-organized memory culture can help keep conversations going years later and integrate valuable lessons into educational and policy frameworks.
Life is indeed a miracle. Whether societies learn from disasters, however, depends on deliberate choices about how experience is translated into enduring practices.
Fatma Özdoğan received funding from Mitacs Inc. through the Mitacs Globalink Research Award to support her research visit at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University. The research presented in this article was conducted in the context of that funded research visit.
Elizabeth Maly has received research funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
(JSPS) and the Disaster Resilience Co-creation Center, IRIDeS, Tohoku University.
Julia Gerster receives funding from JSPS, the Uehiro Foundation on ethics and education, and the Disaster Resilience Co-creation Center, IRIDeS, Tohoku University.
– ref. ‘Life is a Miracle,’ but learning from disasters isn’t: Lessons from Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami – https://theconversation.com/life-is-a-miracle-but-learning-from-disasters-isnt-lessons-from-japans-2011-earthquake-and-tsunami-276985