Miller, Mara2014-05-052014-05-052014-03-21http://hdl.handle.net/10125/32962Presented at the Numata Conference in Buddhist Studies / “Violence, Nonviolence, and Japanese Religions: Past, Present, and Future,” held in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 20–21, 2014The triple disaster of March 11, 2011 raises questions about how to commemorate its events and people. The twentieth century witnessed massive shifts in our expectations of memorials. Since World War II, memorials have been recognized as disseminating complex information and constructing collective memory. They also play another role that is equally important but under-recognized: strengthening, creating, redefining, and/or changing six kinds of human relationships, including those with future generations. Two sets of issues will be outlined. First, can we learn from Hiroshima Peace Park, which has addressed these issues for fifty years, particularly from the contributions of religions? How should we address questions about peaceful as well as wartime usages of nuclear power, or about the interplays of natural disaster and unintentional industrial violence? Second, new memorials will be created in the digital age, adding dimensions, speed, reach and connection. The field of comparative informatics addresses questions about informatics cross-culturally and across different kinds of arenas, particularly insofar as it takes place in the “fourth space” of digital and on-line shared experience. How can comparative informatics facilitate the new tasks to be borne by the 3/11 memorials?Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivsatomic bombsWorld War IIMarch 112011 triple disastermemorializationcomparative informaticsdigital ageConference Paper