Why do we advocate for specific causes while overlooking others?
In Farhet Shahzad’s article, “The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning,” she posits that memories and learning strategies are shaped by an individual’s social relationships, political orientations, cultural meanings, worldview, and historical experiences. Shahzad’s research, employing interviews, written narratives, and demographic questionnaires, explores how Canadian students remember the War on Terror. She emphasizes, “Some communities are more influential than others due to members’ levels of emotional attachment, thus playing a more authoritative role in the process of remembering and learning” (Shahzad p.309).
This reminded me of a comparable situation I encountered in a conversation with an old friend.
On March 3rd, 2011, at 14:46 Japan time, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, unleashing a devastating tsunami and marking the country’s worst natural disaster. The aftermath included 15,889 casualties, 2,601 people still missing, and 245,622 individuals remaining as evacuees (source: http://hinansyameibo.seesaa.net/article/405199181.html). The subsequent explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant garnered global attention, eliciting prayers and support from people worldwide.
As time has elapsed, the impact of this earthquake seems to be fading from people’s minds. When I asked a friend from the U.S. about her thoughts on the event, her response was, “That happened a long time ago.” I was taken aback by her seeming lack of interest or awareness, as the disaster still felt recent to me.
Having experienced the earthquake firsthand, I find myself more emotionally attached to the disaster than those who only witnessed it through media, like my friend from the U.S. Distance from the earthquake-affected area makes it challenging to stay informed about such events, particularly when not covered in mainstream media unless actively sought.
This discrepancy in emotional attachment raises a crucial question: Why should we remember events to which we have a low level of attachment?
Based on my volunteering experience with the earthquake victims, the most frightening prospect is the collective forgetting of 3.11. Many have lost family, homes, and their way of life, and the people in Fukushima still cannot return home due to harmful levels of radiation. While I acknowledge that attachment to global events varies based on personal experiences, I firmly believe that each event carries significant meaning and importance, deserving remembrance. Thus, those with closer proximity to such significant events have a mission to share their stories. For me, the Great East Japan Earthquake underscores the risks of nuclear power and the profound sorrow it inflicts on affected communities. Although this earthquake had localized effects in Japan, the concerns about nuclear power are global, with the potential for a Fukushima-like disaster anywhere nuclear power plants are operational. Therefore, remembering these traumas and sharing the memories is crucial for making informed decisions about the future use of nuclear power.
Even though I have not experienced an earthquake of such a high caliber, your bringing up of the 3.11 Japan Earthquake in relation to the process of remembering felt quite personal for me. At the time that it happened, I didn’t pay too much attention to the event. I just knew that it was horrible, and that there were many deaths, and that it only got worse. However, only a year later, I hosted my first Japanese student from Yokohama as part of our student exchange program in high school. She told me about what she and her family was doing at the time, and only at that moment did I really realize the extent of what happened, that the people in Japan are real human beings, just like myself, with the same feelings, and relationships as I have here, halfway across the world. After, I heard the stories of my three other buddies, and I felt devastated that the event happened to such amazing people. Only after I began hosting Japanese students did I pay more attention to the event, the people effected and the people here in Vancouver making all their efforts to help the Japanese. In my opinion, this is a good example of what you mentioned above about “feeling more attached” only after a personal connection to an event such as 3.11 is made.