Planetary Atmospheres and Urban Society After Fukushima
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EDITED BY CHRISTOPHE THOUNY & MITSUHIRO YOSHIMOTO Planetary Atmospheres and Urban Society After Fukushima Planetary Atmospheres and Urban Society After Fukushima Christophe Thouny • Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto Editors Planetary Atmospheres and Urban Society After Fukushima Editors Christophe Thouny Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto The University of Tokyo Waseda University Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan ISBN 978-981-10-2006-3 ISBN 978-981-10-2007-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2007-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958111 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image: © zixia / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company address is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #22-06/08 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not have been possible without the support of our colleagues and friends who attended the “Fukushima Japan” and “Planetary Love” workshops organized at the University of Tokyo from 2012 to 2015 and the lively and convivial gatherings at Sawayaka where we continued our discussions and prepared for further meetings. In par- ticular, we thank Reiko Abe Auestad, Veruska Cantelli, Jillian Healy, Saeko Kimura, Christine Marran, Anne McKnight, Sharity Nelson, Flavio Rizzo, Marc Steinberg, Shoko Tanaka, and Max Ward. Special thanks to our edi- tor Christopher Lehrich who did an admirable job preparing the manu- script. And to Jean-Paul Thouny for the cartography. We are also grateful for the generous financial assistance provided by Waseda University for the publication of this book. v CONTENTS 1 Planetary Atmospheres of Fukushima: Introduction 1 Christophe Thouny Part 1 Planetary Thinking After Fukushima 19 2 “Dying Wisdom” and “Living Madness”: A Comparative Literature of the Errant Star 21 Satoshi Ukai, translated by Philip Kaffen 3 Nuclear Disaster and Bubbles 29 Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto 4 How Can I Love My Radioactive Tuna? Planetary Love in Shōno Yoriko 51 Christophe Thouny Part 2 Urban Life After Fukushima 71 5 Brave New Sanriku: Recovering from 3.11 73 Ramona Bajema vii viii Contents 6 From Atomic Fission to Splitting Areas of Expertise: When Politics Prevails Over Scientific Proof 95 Cécile Asanuma-Brice 7 Reconstruction of Marginality: The Tokyo Bay Area in the Great East Japan Earthquake 113 Tadahito Yamamoto Part 3 Literature, Cinema and Love in Fukushima Japan 129 8 Ecosophy and Planetary Writing: On Chernobyl II 131 Toshiya Ueno 9 In Time for the War: 3/11 After Cinema 169 Philip Kaffen 10 The Gesture from Fukushima Daiichi: The Voice in Furukawa Hideo 195 Doug Slaymaker 11 Conclusion: Capitalism and Atmosphere 207 Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto Index 211 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Cécile Asanuma-Brice an urban sociologist, is an Associate Researcher at Clersé–University of Lille 1 and at the research center of the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo. A permanent resident of Japan since 2001, she is the author of numerous journal and newspaper articles on the han- dling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including “De la vulnérabilité à la résilience, réflexions sur la protection en cas de désastre extrême: Le cas de la gestion des conséquences de l’explosion d’une centrale nucléaire à Fukushima” (forthcoming) and “Les politiques publiques du logement face à la catastrophe du 11 mars” (2012). Ramona Bajema is now completing a book project, Art Across Borders: Japanese Artists in the United States before World War II, which traces five Japanese artists active in the establishment of American modernist art. Following the 2011 triple disasters in Japan, Ramona worked as a Country Representative in Japan for the humanitarian aid organization, AmeriCares. Based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture between 2011 and 2015, Ramona oversaw the development of health-oriented projects that helped survivors from Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate Prefectures. Her next book project will be a memoir based on her experiences in post-disaster Tōhoku. Philip Kaffen is Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the departments of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at New York University. His work analyzes film and media aesthetics, primarily through its intersec- tions with histories and technologies of war. He has published articles on documentary film, cinema and urban space, cinephilia and love, and phi- losophies of media in Japan. His current book project, Embedded Optics: ix x List of Contributors Imaging Violence/Framing Security in Japanese Media, examines the role of optical media in waging war and maintaining security, as well as its capacity to generate forms of responsibility beyond sovereignty. Doug Slaymaker is Professor of Japanese at the University of Kentucky. His research focuses on literature and art of the twentieth century, with particular interest in Japanese writers and artists traveling to France; other projects include the literature of post-3.11 Japan and of the environment. His research has been funded by the Fulbright Program, the Social Science Research Council, NEH, the Library of Congress Kluge Center, and other agencies. He is most recently the translator of Furukawa Hideo’s Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure (2016). Christophe Thouny is Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo. His field of interest covers East Asian media and urban culture, Japanese literature, ecocriticism, and critical theory. He is currently work- ing on a book project entitled Tokyo Atmospheres: Environmentalism and the Neoliberal City in Japanese Subcultures in which he analyzes contem- porary Japanese subculture in terms of present concerns for the environ- ment in the neoliberal age. He is also working on a second research project on cartographic practices of urban spaces in Meiji and Taishō, Tokyo. Toshiya Ueno is a Professor of Cultural Studies, Media Theory, and History of Social Thought in the Department of Expressive Cultures and Transcultural Studies at Wakō University in Tokyo. Professor Ueno is well known as the author of a number of major books, including Red Metal Suits: Anime as War Zone (1998), Urban Tribal Studies: A Sociology of Party Club Culture (2005), and more recently Hoodlums of Thought: Another Intellectual History of the 1950s (2015). Satoshi Ukai is Professor of French Literature and Postcolonial Studies at Hitotsubashi University. His publications in English include The Future of an Affect: About the Historicity of Shame and The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions: For ‘a Critique of Terrorism’ to Come (2005). He recently published in Japanese a collection of essays on Jacques Derrida entitled The Tomb of Jacquie Derrida (2014) and a translation of Jacques Derrida’s book, The Animal That Therefore I Am (2014). Tadahito Yamamoto is Senior Researcher in the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage at Tokyo, Japan. His work focuses on the relation- ship among disaster and urban space from sociological viewpoint, including List of Contributors xi research on the Tokyo Air Raids during WWII and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. He is a chief editor of an online journal, Disaster, Infrastructure and Society: Learning from the 2011 Earthquake in Japan, published on the repository of Hitotsubashi University. Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto is Professor of Media Studies and Visual Culture at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is the author of Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema (Duke University Press, 2000), Empire of Images and the End of Cinema (Tokyo: Ibunsha, 2007), and Spectacle of Conspiracy (Tokyo: Ibunsha, 2012). He co-authored with Masao Miyoshi Site of Resistance (Kyoto: Rakuhoku Shuppan, 2007) and also co-edited Television, Japan, and Globalization (Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2010) with Eva Tsai and Jung-bong Choi. LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 5.1 Ishinomaki, June 2011 80 Fig. 5.2 Kawamata clean-up 82 Fig. 5.3 Memorial for 3.11 victims 85 Fig. 5.4 Ogatsu, summer 2011 86 Fig. 6.1 Refugees and their legal advisors demand the prolongation of their access to free housing before the Japanese Parliament, May 20, 2015 (Photo Cécile Asanuma-Brice) 99 Fig. 6.2 Map of the restricted area 100 Fig. 6.3 Ms. Monma, a 75-year-old Buddhist nun from the town of Namie, living as a refugee in the village of Ō tama: “I went to demonstrate before the Parliament, I said to them…, we have lost everything…, we simply want houses where we can farm the land” (Interview conducted May 21, 2015; Photo Cécile Asanuma-Brice) 104 Fig. 6.4 Scene of the vote deciding to restart the Sendai (Kyūshu) nuclear power station: Minister of Trade Y. Miyazawa, in reading out the decision, got the name of the plant wrong, thus betraying his disinterest and lack of involvement in local affairs, to then declare: “The committee is in unanimous agreement for restarting the power plant.” This scene shows how, in democratic systems, the participation of the public is respected, indeed required, even if their opinions are not taken into consideration.