Resilient Tokyo: Disaster and Transformation in the Japanese City

Abstract

Natural disasters have destroyed, in whole or in part, Japan’s cities on numerous occasions. Human action, whether internal warfare or the air raids of the Second World War, has been the cause of further devastation. But regardless of the origin of the destructive force, Japan has always rebuilt its cities, and usually with astonishing speed. This chapter argues that while urban disasters can bring about an opportunity for changes in the built environment, they do not appear to induce innovation per se. Many times, the Japanese rebuilt their cities much the same as they were before, innovating only slightly on building codes or urban form. At times of ongoing political, economic, and social transformation, however, the leadership sponsored urban change in the wake of destruction. These interventions, instead of responding to post-disaster conditions, were often pared-down versions of predisaster concepts, constrained by limited finances, the lack of appropriate planning tools, the strictures of land ownership, and the needs and desires of private initiatives that called for rapid reconstruction and the preservation of traditional urban form. Societal transformation by itself has promoted the large-scale demolition and urban transformation of Japanese cities far beyond the areas touched by natural or human-made disasters. Rapid industrialization, urbanization, modernization, andWesternization, following the Meiji restoration of 1868 and the establishment of modern Japan, in particular buffeted Japanese cities on a grand scale. The repeated destruction of the capital, Tokyo (or Edo, as the city was called until 1868), and its rapid reconstruction provide an especially compelling means to examine disaster and rebuilding in Japanese cities. A focus on Tokyo permits comparison of reconstruction following both sudden, natural destruction and human-inflicted attack, as well as analysis of urban change in the absence of disaster. Earthquakes rattle Japan regularly; typhoons are frequent visitors; and tidal waves as well as tsunami have wiped out many settlements along the coasts. Rivers are highly susceptible to flooding, and inundation along major rivers in Edo resulted in the affluent abandoning the lowlands to the poor and lower classes and building their villas on the highlands. Traditional Japanese architecture has responded to such threats in a variety of ways. Wood construction, for example, provides flexibility in the event of tremors, and heavy roofing helps to stabilize houses buffeted by typhoon-strength winds.

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