This Must Be the Place: Partnerships for Disaster Preparedness in San José’s Historic Japantown

Publication Date

10-7-2021

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Practicing Anthropology

Volume

43

Issue

4

DOI

10.17730/0888-4552.43.4.23

First Page

23

Last Page

30

Abstract

Because upheavals, oppression, and disaster feature so prominently in the history and (re) making of Japantown San José, preparedness and recovery are in many ways structuring idioms of Japantown and its translocal networks. Memories of generational traumas and recoveries are passed through generations and across cultures in Japantown, as key processes in its history are memorialized in monuments, museums, artwork, plaques, benches, and everyday storytelling. We introduce a community-based disaster preparedness organization, Japantown Prepared, as an outgrowth of the structuring idioms of preparedness and recovery and how their work continues in a partnership with the Department of Anthropology at San José State University.

Keywords

disasters, preparedness, cultural enclave, organizational development

Department

Anthropology

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