Hostname: page-component-669899f699-chc8l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-04T00:33:54.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Hermeneutics of Radiation and the Three Tsunamis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Paul Jobin
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The first tsunami that hit northern Japan in March 2011 was a big wave of salt water. The second tsunami was comprised of cement dikes designed to protect against a tsunami. The third tsunami is a socio-political process that erases memory of the disaster. The nuclear disaster that followed the first tsunami has reactivated the dispute over the effects of low-dose radiation. This controversy, which dates back to the experience of the hibakusha in 1945, includes a problem of hermeneutics—a conflict of interpretation—over what is being counted as “data”.

Keywords

Fukushimadisasternuclear energytsunamiradiationnuclear safety
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 17 , September 2021 , e7
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2021

References

Asanuma-Brice, C. (2021) Fukushima, dix ans après: sociologie d'un désastre. Paris: MSH.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P.C. (2014) ‘Call it A ‘Wash’? Historical Perspectives on Conundrums of Technological Modernization, Flood Amelioration and Disasters in Modern Japan’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 12 (7) [Online].Google Scholar
Cleveland, K., Knowles, S.G. and Shineha, R. (2021). ‘Introduction’ in Cleveland, K., Knowles, S.G., and Shineha, R. (ed.) Legacies of Fukushima:3.11 in Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobin, P. (2017) ‘Nuclear Gypsies in Fukushima Before and After 3.11’, in MacDowell, L. (ed.) Nuclear Portraits: People, Communities and the Environment. Academia [Online].Google Scholar
Jobin, P. (2020) ‘The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and Civil Actions as a Social Movement’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 18 (9) [Online].Google Scholar
Jobin, P. (2021) ‘Nuclear Labor, Its Invisibility, and the Dispute over Low-Dose Radiation’, in Cleveland, K., Knowles, S.G. and Shineha, R. (ed.) Legacies of Fukushima:3.11 in Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 145–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D.T., Fukurai, H. and Hirayama, M. (2020) ‘Reflections on the TEPCO Trial: Prosecution and Acquittal after Japan's Nuclear Meltdown’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 18 (2) [Online].Google Scholar
Leuraud, K., Richardson, D., Cardis, Elisabeth, et al. (2015) ‘Ionising Radiation and Risk of Death from Leukemia and Lymphoma in Radiation-Monitored Workers (INWORKS): An International Cohort Study’, Lancet Haematology, 2 (7) [Online].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lifton, R.J. (2021) ‘Foreword’ in Cleveland, K., Knowles, S.G., and Shineha, R. (ed.) Legacies of Fukushima:3.11 in Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. xi-xiii.Google Scholar
Nagataki, S., and Kasagi, F. (2015) ‘INWORKS Study: Risk of Leukemia from Protracted Radiation Exposure’, The Lancet Haematology, 2 (10) [Online].CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pons, P. (2021) ‘Au Japon, dix ans après le tsunami, la déferlante de béton’, Le Monde, 30 March [Online].Google Scholar
Scoccimarro, R. (2020) ‘Tsunami de béton: de l'empreinte à l'emprise sur les paysages littoraux après les catastrophes du 11 mars 2011‘, Projets de paysage, 23 [Online].CrossRefGoogle Scholar