Paper short abstract:

Using ethnographical material from a study on the use of forensic genetic testing in Japan in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 I look at the shifts of significations that blood as a carrier of information about people and identities underwent.

Paper long abstract:

The Great East Japan Earthquake and the following tsunami which heavily hit the Tohoku area in March 11 2011, apart from massive destruction of infrastructure, left more than 15.800 people dead and 3.600 missing. The identification of the corpses recovered during the following months often proved difficult; as late as in July 2011 about 1700 dead bodies were still not identified. The police departments that primarily dealt with the identification of the corpses, amongst other methods, also used forensic genetic testing utilising several kinds of cells from people missing. Although the Japanese Red Cross had refused to provide the police with information about donor identity in the past in order to safeguard the anonymity of its blood donors, the organization - with some unease - approved to hand over blood samples for identification purposes to the police in the aftermath of the disaster. This was regarded as part of what the Red Cross saw as its obligation to relieve suffering of bereaved relatives and to help Japanese society in general at a time of national crisis.

Using ethnographical material from an ongoing study on the use of forensic genetic testing in Japan in the aftermath of the disaster I explore the ways of how the uses of blood collected for medical purposes became reconfigured. In particular, I look at the shifts of significations that blood as a carrier of information about people and identities underwent within the tensions between de-personalized blood products, data confidentiality and donor anonymity, as well as the obligation to relieve individual and social suffering.