Surviving Disaster, Reviving Religion: Transformations & Reconfigurations of Religious Communities in Fukushima after 3.11.

After the triple disaster of 3.11, the region along the coast of Northeast Japan has been continuously transforming. Especially in Fukushima Prefecture, where a series of accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant resulted in high radioactive contamination, the event's aftermath still lingers on. In this challenging time, local religious communities show a heightened need for religious ritual and socio-communal reconstruction. They experienced the disaster first-hand and had to re-establish their religious sites and recreate their communities, while simultaneously becoming a source for coping strategies and a hope for those in distress. This article provides initial findings of how the triple disaster has impacted religious communities in Fukushima by drawing from the results of fieldwork done among a Shinto and a Baptist community in 2018. Loss and reconstruction become defining parameters for the reconfigurations of communal life upon return. With their re-claimed spaces in the region, the communities try to decisively shape the reviving of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]