Role of Oral Transmission in Disaster Prevention Education – Significance of Disaster Folklore in Modern Times –

Abstract

Oral and other modes of transmission that convey the experience of past disasters possess a vividness that cannot be obtained by disaster prevention education practices such as viewing hazard maps. Oral transmission is believed to have the capacity to induce rapid evacuation of people during disasters by acting on their emotions such as fear or anxiety. Meanwhile, the judgment, decision-making, or disaster knowledge of past disasters, has limitations such as the inclusion of inappropriate views from the standpoint of modern disaster management, or underestimation of the damage in the event of major disasters of an unprecedented scale, which can lead to a delay in evacuation. Disaster prevention education should adopt a “hybrid approach,” which combines oral transmission or other means that act on “emotions,” by providing a virtual experience of disasters and modern disaster-prevention knowledge, including hazard maps and teaching material, based on “reason.”