Figure 1.1. Ninety percent of Odawara was destroyed in the Great Kantō Earthquake (1923)

Figure 1.2. Whirlwind, an oil painting by Tokunaga Ryūshū following the Great Kantō Earthquake. Figures are portrayed as if they’ve been thrown. More hands and legs stretch from the rubble at the bottom (From the collection of the Tokyo Memorial Hall).

Figure 1.3. Yamamoto Gonnohyōe (far left) opening a Cabinet meeting on the grounds of the prime minister’s office, following the Great Kantō Earthquake.

Figure 1.4. Crowds filling the plaza in front of the Imperial Palace during “Imperial Capital Reconstruction Festival” (March 1930)

Figure 2.1. Correlation between disaster strength and frequency (countermeasures)

Figure 2.2. Firefighters unable to conduct firefighting activities as they wait in vain for water to arrive (January 17, 1995)

Figure 2.3. SDF vehicles and helicopters gathering at Ōji Stadium (January 18, 1995)

Figure 2.4. The front-page story of a local newspaper reporting the possibility of a major earthquake (© June 26, 1974, evening edition of the Kobe Shimbun)

Figure 2.5. (From left) Cabinet Minister Ozato Sadatoshi (special minister in charge of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake), Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Igarashi Kōzō, and Construction Minister Nosaka Kōken at work. The Emergency Response Headquarters in the prime minister’s office (January 21, 1995)

Figure 2.6. Temporary housing under construction at Kobe Port Island (March 1995)

Figures 3.1. The incoming tsunami, swallowing houses in Miyagi prefecture (March 11, 2011)

Figure 3.2. Fishing boats affected in the tsunami, now grounded onshore (left), along with those that returned safely and moored together (March 13, 2011)

Figure 3.3. Kamaishi (Iwate prefecture) saw the worst of the destruction in the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami (1896)

Figure 3.4. A massive seawall was built at Tarō following the 1933 Shōwa Sanriku Tsunami, but it was insufficient to stop the tsunami caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Figure 3.5. Shinchi station on the Japan Railways Jōban line, destroyed by the tsunami (March 17, 2011)

Figure 4.1. Prime Minister Kan Naoto at a combined meeting of the ruling and opposition parties, asking for cooperation in the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 11, 2011)

Figure 4.2. A hydrogen explosion occurred in the Unit 1 reactor building of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (March 12, 2011. Broadcasted by Fukushima Central Television)

Figure 4.3. U.S. Marines conducting a moment of silence before beginning cleanup operations at Ōshima’s Uranohama port (April 1, 2011. Photo courtesy of U.S. Marines)

Figure 4.4. The first meeting of the Reconstruction Design Council in Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake. (From right) Prime Minister Kan Naoto and the author with other committee members (April 14, 2011)

Figure 4.5. Placing a sign at the entrance to the newly established Miyagi Recovery Bureau (February 10, 2012)