12/31 (Fri)
I woke up late. I went to Ebisuya with Asano-sensei to buy Japanese stuff. Then I bought drinks and vegetables around my apartment. And I cleaned up my room and washed the clothes that I wore in New Orleans. In the evening, I started to read Wakimura (2020) “10の感染症からよむ世界史.” I read the preface, Part1 and half of Part2.
1/1 (Sat)
I woke up late again. It was a new year but I wasn't feeling particularly special. The number of people infected with Covid-19 in Cambridge is increasing rapidly, and I need to stay safe.
I finished to read Wakimura (2020). Plague, Influenza, Cholera, Malaria, Dysentery, Tuberculosis, Smallpox, Yellow fever, Typhus, and Syphilis were picked up as the ten most influential infectious diseases in human history. And each symptom, vaccine, treatment, death of famous people, and their impact on history was summarized.
Terms such as bacteria, viruses, contact infection, droplet infection, airborne infection, vector infection, outbreak, endemic, epidemic, pandemic, symptomatic, causative, isolation, quarantine, bacteriology, immunology, disinfection and etc were explained in simple descriptions. The etymology of the words "quarantine" and "vaccination" was interesting.
At the end, Prof. Wakimura mentioned that the Covid-19 has the potential to affect world history; one is the development of digitalization of the economy and society ("corona-tech,") and another is the further fluidization of the international order due to the struggle between the U.S. and China.
1/2 (Sun)
I stayed in my apartment to keep safe. I finished reading Iokibe 2016 “大災害の時代.”
The author was the chairman of the Reconstruction Design Council. Citing historical disasters, the author had named the present age as the "age of great disasters." He described the chairman's basic idea and the brief process of the official seven principles on the reconstruction.
He ideologically led the creative reconstruction by modern technology. After the Kobe Earthquake, the central government refused to allow national funds to be spent on creative reconstruction. He was a professor at Kobe university at that time.
In order to realize the creative reconstruction, he supported increasing the reconstruction tax. As a result, reconstruction projects became 100% government-funded. After that, he was expressing concerns about the declining and aging population in the rural areas. He cited as a challenge how to build the attractiveness and vitality that will draw people from all over the country.
In addition, he described a brief discussion of the Lisbon earthquake and the 3.11 disaster. He mentioned the issue of long-term national trends that cannot be influenced by the recovery from the disaster.