When a disaster happens in a 'collective' culture, like the Fukushima earthquake in Japan in 2011, and the resulting Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, it can be difficult for people to reflect individually, as there is a sense that the collective envision is still in pain. Space must be given for the community in whole to reflect and heal, not just individuals within that community for lasting effect.
When the collective is allowed to heal from the moral injury of a major event, the community in whole sighs. The individual understands that they are freed from a community's future that they did not want. The individual is healed by the understanding that others in their community are supported and held.
"The heart of community resilience is based on working on the social and community capital", says Bob Stilger, STIA+ presenter and co-founder of a community development corporation and whose work allows him to see that communities are built from the inside out. "The most important thing that happens in the place of communal healing is that people are reminded who they are."
In these spaces of communal healing, such as in the Fukushima area of Japan, community members are not asked to forget their past, or be someone else. They are asked to bring themselves into the whole, and thus healing can begin from within and from around.
We do not need to wait for other visible disasters to appear to begin communal healing, Bob explained. He told the story of a young Japanese girl from Fukushima who was concerned about her health and future after the 2011 disaster. And yet, after visiting America, she told Bob "The problems that we have in Fukashima are nothing like those that you in the United States will have to deal with," explaining the American obsession with fast food and the resulting failing health.
We must look within ourselves to address our moral injuries and then look out to our communities. Together we can heal the injuries that seem to big to take on alone and change our direction away from a potential future in which we do not want.
