Triggered to Thinking

Memory Studies and Collective Memory

Memory studies can tell us many things about what and how people choose to remember certain events. Certain historical events, such as war, environmental disasters, and terror attacks, can create collective meanings that allow groups of people to remember these events in specific ways. On March 11, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck Honshu along the Japan Trench. A tsunami was also generated as a result of the earthquake and led to the disabling of three nuclear reactors within three days (On This Day: 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, 2011). This event is called “3-11” in Japanese culture and has left damage to Japan’s collective psyche (Neilson, 2026).

Anna Lisa Tota and Trever Hagen note, “On 11 March 2012 a government-sponsored ceremony was held to mark the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. It bore a striking resemblance to the Ceremony to Commemorate the War Dead held on 15 August each year. The emperor and empress, prime minister, senior politicians and representatives of the bereaved families paid their respects to the dead and missing” (De Nardi et al., 2019, p. xx). By being seen as worthy of national commemoration by the state, these narratives are etched into national memory, history, and identity (De Nardi et al., 2019). Memories of the surrender of Japan in World War II and the disaster caused by the earthquake have become intertwined in Japan. For Japan, memory is the way the past is understood through the present (De Nardi et al., 2019).

In the United States, Hurricane Katrina is one of the most impactful natural disasters in American history. I can recall being a young man and feeling distraught by the stories of suffering that people experienced as a result of this hurricane. Carl F. Weems, a specialist in human development and family studies at Iowa State University, offers a perspective on how traumatic memories change. Weems’ research finds that trauma memories are not fixed scenarios but are narratives influenced by age, context, and experiences (Expert Available to Discuss New Theory on Trauma Memory, 2025). “Trauma memories exist on a continuum,” Weems says. “They can fade, strengthen, or be reinterpreted over time. Understanding this evolution is critical for disaster recovery, mental health care, and policy” (Expert Available to Discuss New Theory on Trauma Memory, 2025).

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was another example of how a disaster can influence the memories of individuals and communities. Photographer Ansel Adams said that the earthquake was his “closest experience with profound human suffering” (Stamberg, 2022). He remembered being violently shaken and experiencing pain during this traumatic event. Elsie Cross, a child who survived the earthquake, later wrote a letter about the experience: “All that day there were shocks and the sun was a ball of purple red from the smoke. I was very hot and you could hear building after building being blasted. People passed in all kinds of wagons and some on foot with what possessions they could take. A house across the street was moved over nine feet and the house next to that went down into the earth 10 feet” (Stamberg, 2022).

Memories of the destruction of the San Francisco earthquake have become ingrained in the history of the city and continue to shape how the tragedy is remembered.

In examples of war, such as the Bosnian War, Bosnian Muslims recount memories and stories of horrific crimes inflicted on them by the Serbs. In the summer of 1992, Bosnian Muslim civilians were ethnically cleansed from their villages. Many Bosnians felt confused because they were attacked by their own army, which was supposed to protect them and to which they paid taxes. One account states, “We all thought that the army was going to save us. I am bitterly disappointed because of the role the army had in this war. When the first tensions occurred, I thought that they were going to put an end to it. But they took the other side. And it was our Yugoslav army which we trusted and believed in” (Weine, 1999).

References 

De Nardi, S., Orange, H., High, S., & Koskinen-Koivisto, E. (2019). The Routledge handbook of memory and place. Routledge.

Expert available to discuss new theory on trauma memory in conjunction with 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. (2025, August 22). Newswise. https://www.newswise.com/articles/expert-available-to-discuss-new-theory-on-trauma-memory-in-conjunction-with-20th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina

Kaplan, B. A. (2023). Critical memory studies: New approaches. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Neilson, S. (2026, March 4). Is Japanese culture traumatized by centuries of natural disaster? Nautilus. https://nautil.us/is-japanese-culture-traumatized-by-centuries-of-natural-disaster-235722

National Centers for Environmental Information. (2011, March). On this day: 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Retrieved April 12, 2026, from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/day-2011-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami

Stamberg, S. (2022, May 16). San Francisco: Memories of an earthquake. WFSU News. https://news.wfsu.org/all-npr-news/2006-04-17/san-francisco-memories-of-an-earthquake

Tota, A. L., & Hagen, T. (2015). Routledge international handbook of memory studies. Routledge.

Weine, S. (1999). When history is a nightmare: Lives and memories of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=008697874&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA