Eating After the Triple Disaster: New Meanings of Food in Three Post-3.11 Texts
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EATING AFTER THE TRIPLE DISASTER: NEW MEANINGS OF FOOD IN THREE POST-3.11 TEXTS by ROSALEY GAI B.A., The University of Chicago, June 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2020 © Rosaley Gai, 2020 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Eating After the Triple Disaster: New Meanings of Food in Three Post-3.11 Texts submitted by Rosaley Gai in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Asian Studies Examining Committee: Sharalyn Orbaugh, Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisor Christina Yi, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Ayaka Yoshimizu, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member ii ABstract Known colloquially as “3.11,” the triple disaster that struck Japan’s northeastern region of Tōhoku on March 11, 2011 comprised of both natural (the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami) and humanmade (the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incurred due to post-earthquake damage) disasters. In the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, there was an outpouring of media reacting to and reflecting on the great loss of life and resulting nuclear contamination of the nearby land and sea of the region. Thematically, food plays a large role in many post-3.11 narratives, both through the damage and recovery of local food systems after the natural disasters and the radiation contamination that to this day stigmatizes regionally grown food. This thesis seeks to examine the new meanings of food in three Japanese-language texts produced after 3.11. First, I examine Kawakami Hiromi’s (1958 - ) “Kamisama” (1994) and its rewritten version “Kamisama 2011” (2011) to consider the textual construction of human and animal bodies and their interaction with food and environment through a salted fish, made newly inedible in the 2011 version, to consider the new potential of food after 3.11. Next, I examine loss and anxiety tied to geographical place, as well as the portrayal of “truth” in the post-3.11 chapters of Kariya Tetsu’s (1941 - ) controversial and long-running manga about food, Oishinbo (1980 - present). Finally, I consider the ways that post-3.11 thought has influenced the representation and issues of food in “Iganu no ame” (2014), a short science fiction story by popular idol and writer Katō Shigeaki (1987 - ), in order to consider ways that precarity now includes shifts and changes in eating after the triple disaster. In these three texts, I find common themes of memory and intimacy through food, mistrust toward the “official” positions on the safety of food after 3.11, and the articulation of new anxieties in the present and future of eating. iii Lay Summary Food is an integral part of our daily lives, and intimately ties us to the land upon which it is grown. This thesis examines representations of food in three texts written after the triple disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. By looking at the meaning and interpretations of food in these texts, I find that these authors explore issues of bodily safety, memory, tradition, suffering, and hope through food and its relationship to the land, sea, and sky of post-3.11 Japan. Two texts, Kawakami Hiromi’s “Kamisama 2011” (God 2011, 2011) and the post-3.11 chapters (pub. 2012-2014) of Kariya Tetsu’s manga Oishinbo (1980 - present) deal directly with the changed meaning of food after 3.11; the last text, Katō Shigeaki’s short story “Iganu no ame” (Iganu Rain, 2014), does not mention 3.11—instead, the effects of the triple disaster are made apparent in the eating of aliens. iv Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Rosaley Gai. v Table of Contents Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ................................................................................................................................. iv Preface ............................................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Food, Literature, and Food in Literature in Post-3.11 Japan .................................................................... 4 General Notes .......................................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2: Irradiated and “Cooked” Human and Animal Bodies in “Kamisama 2011” .............. 18 Textual Issues: Rewriting and Republishing .......................................................................................... 20 Human Bodies and Animal Bodies ......................................................................................................... 24 “Clean” Cooked Food, Contaminated Fish ............................................................................................. 29 Inedible Fish as Memento ....................................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion: A New Everyday ................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 3: The Portrayal of “Real” and “Truth” through Eating in Oishinbo .............................. 44 Textual Hybridity and Fictional Food ..................................................................................................... 48 Disaster and Hope through Local Taste .................................................................................................. 57 Economic Loss and Psychological Loss: A Humanmade Disaster in Food Manga ............................... 63 Bygone Peaches and Taste as Internal Experience ................................................................................. 74 Conclusion: The Future of Eating in Oishinbo ....................................................................................... 78 Chapter 4: Precarious Foodways and Desire in “Iganu no ame” .................................................. 85 Celebrity Writers and Magazine Fiction ................................................................................................. 90 Non-Iganu Food: Familiar, Memorable, Undesired ............................................................................... 93 Iganu: Alien, Taboo, Desired .................................................................................................................. 96 The Taste of Forbidden Fruit Versus the Taste of Phantoms ................................................................. 99 Precarious Foodways in Post-Iganu Japan ............................................................................................ 103 Conclusion: New Precarity in Eating .................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 114 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 123 vi Acknowledgements I, like so many others on this good Earth, love food. To me, within food exist the greatest sources of joy and sorrow, of emotional and personal connection, of pain and healing. Yet food is also a source of anxiety for me and for many others, as its cultural and visceral qualities take on new meanings as society shifts and changes. Food is both biological and symbolic, an object that certainly can be interpreted as a part of daily life but also contains within it the limitless psychological and social attachments built by individuals, communities, and even nations. In many of my academic endeavors and personal life, I have attempted to squeeze the meanings out of food and its representations in all that surrounds me. This thesis is partly an attempt to navigate through Japanese fiction my own experiences as a consumer, especially during my total three-or-so years spent living in Japan after the triple disaster of March 11, 2011. (To clarify, my first contact with post-3.11 Japan was in the summer of 2014, after American media moved on from the triple disaster.) I could write pages and pages about what I ate in Japan in those years, and the feelings that possessed me before, during, and after all of those bites of food. This thesis, however, is about fictional representations of food after 3.11, and it would not have been possible without the support and advice