Six thousand people died and hundreds of thousands lost their
homes
when the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit Kobe in January 1995. It was
the
largest disaster to affect postwar Japan and one of the most
destructive postwar natural disasters to strike a developed
country.
Although the media focused on the disaster's immediate
effects,
the long-term reconstruction efforts have gone largely
unexplored.
Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with planners, activists,
and
bureaucrats, David Edgington records the first ten years of
reconstruction and recovery efforts and offers detailed
descriptions of
the geography of crisis and opportunity. Which districts were
most
vulnerable to quake and why? Did policy makers and planners
exploit
opportunities to revitalize the city and make it more sustainable
and
disaster proof? Edgington's intricate investigation of
Japanese
urban policy, local governance, and land use in stricken
neighbourhoods
reveals that Japan's particular style of urban redevelopment
hindered rather than hastened its ability to rebuild a
devastated
city.
An absorbing account of the largest urban-planning
redevelopment
effort in Japanese history and the disaster that caused it,
Reconstructing Kobe offers real-world solutions to urban planners
and
policy makers and is essential reading for students and scholars
of
Japanese urban and planning history.
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