Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone

Record summary

Richard Lloyd Parry’s book documents stories from communities affected by the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, including bereaved people who reported seeing, hearing, or otherwise encountering the dead. It is useful for comparing contemporary Japanese ghost narratives with Buddhist, local, and psychological frameworks of mourning. The book is journalistic rather than an investigation establishing paranormal facts, and individual reports vary considerably in detail and interpretation. Some accounts may reflect grief, social expectation, or retrospective reconstruction, while others are presented as unresolved experiences within local communities.