What remains and grows at the ‘earthquake disaster remains’: two atypical cases of memorialization in Miyagi Prefecture

Can 're-wilding' at 'earthquake disaster remains (shinsai ikō)' introduce a new paradigm of memorializing the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami? What sacrifices do conventional formulas of memorialization and heritagization demand of the 3.11 tsunami-affected residents and municipalities? This paper explores these questions by examining two atypical 'earthquake disaster remains' in Miyagi Prefecture: the former police box in Onagawa, and the concrete foundations of housing in Arahama. Brimming with vegetal desires for life, the two sites look viscerally chaotic and alarmingly unkempt, defying most people's expectations. My analysis shows that conventional formulas of memorializing the sites of trauma require vigilance against weathering and decaying, lest changes in appearance threaten the authenticity of the sites. In this context, by foregrounding the earthquake disaster remains' physical mutability through ecological entanglement, I argue, the two atypical sites under investigation distill the inherent contradictions and problematics that our ingrained practices of memorialization take for granted. Through re-wilding, what I call 'partial forgetting by design', will emerge as a possible intervention into imagining a life and future in the disaster-prone areas around the world in an era of planetary climate change.