Post-3.11 Australia-Japan co-operation: facing non-traditional security challenges: Items of sentimental value

To those for whom this talk and the photographs that accompany it may cause distress, I apologise,

and hope that what I have to say will be taken in the spirit intended - that is, as a tribute to those who

worked to find ways to alleviate distress, heal wounds, offer comfort and repair damage. This talk offers

me (and I hope you as an audience) an opportunity to think through the meaning of 'connection', and the

meaning of photographs, their relationship to collective memory and community, and their capacity to

allow survivors and those who witness tragedy intimately or from a distance to better understand the

trauma of a disaster like 3.11 and to begin a process of recovery.