Post-3/11 Literature: Two Writers from Fukushima

Abstract

14 | World Literature Today photo: jérémie souteyrat O n March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm, a major earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude struck the eastern part of Japan, in particular the Tohoku region centering on Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate prefectures. Within one hour, tsunami waves reaching record heights of forty meters breached Japan’s Pacific coast, destroying many towns and villages in the area. The earthquake and tsunami claimed more than fifteen thousand lives, and many people are still missing. Moreover, due to the station blackout reportedly caused by the tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant experienced a meltdown , causing several hydrogen explosions and the release of enormous amounts of radioactivity into the environment. This nuclear crisis represents a historic catastrophe that exceeds the Three Mile Island accident of 1979 and reaches the frightening level of the 1986 accident at Chernobyl . Hundreds of thousands of people within twenty kilometers of the power plant were forced to evacuate, and many citizens are deeply concerned about the long-term effects of radioactive poisoning, especially for children. What this triple disaster dramatized is the fact that Tohoku, or Japan’s northeast, has occupied a peripheral place in Japan and its history. In modern times, this agricultural region often had to sacrifice itself for the industrial development of the nation, providing labor, food, and raw materials . The Fukushima Daiichi plant is a case in point. Operated by the Tokyo Electric Company, it supplies energy for the greater Tokyo area. Fukushima prefecture, however, belongs to the area of the Post-3/11 Literature: Two Writers from Fukushima Takeshi Kimoto Tohoku Electric Company, within the system of a government-granted regional monopoly of energy production and distribution by nine private companies . That is to say, Fukushima suffers from the consequences of the nuclear accident on behalf of the metropolitan population. This crisis evoked various experiences, actions, and commentaries on the part of writers throughout Japan, most notably the Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe and celebrated novelist Haruki Murakami.1 However, two writers from Fukushima , Ryoichi Wago and Hideo Furukawa, provided a more immediate response to the disaster and have produced the most significant literary works so far. essay January–February 2012 | 15 With his Shi no tsubute (Pebbles of poetry), Wago sought to resist the debris produced by the earthquake and tsunami. “Radiation is falling. A quiet night.” “Can there be any meaning in causing us such pain?” “What does this disaster teach us? What can we believe if it teaches us nothing?” In the midst of frequent aftershocks, “Shh! It’s an aftershock. Millions of horses gallop underground, crying.” Still, Wago believes, “all nights eventually end.” Driven by a strong desire to communicate Fukushima’s despair and hope, Wago chose Twitter forhismedium.Oncehebegansendingmessageson March 16, he immediately drew 171 followers, and by the time his book was published in June, he had attracted more than 14,000. His tweets appeared as an improvised poetry reading in cyberspace. Moreover , beyond the virtual community, he discovered other people’s experiences and suffering during the crisis. In inscribing the words of others, Wago became a kind of dialogical medium himself. His Shi nomokurei (Silent prayer of poetry) and Shinokaikou (Encounter of poetry), published simultaneously with Shi no tsubute, are records of his mourning and dialogues with evacuees and those directly affected.3 A keen listener, Wago allows these others to speak in memorable ways. A man from the town of Tomioka, which the government ordered to evacuate, encourages other colleagues: “We must do our best, for something like this occurs but once in a thousand years” (Encounter). A father from the evacuated village of Iidate remarks, “Rather than asking ’why now?’ we must be grateful that this happened at our time rather than that of our children.” Editorial note: To read about how Kesennuma’s Miyawaki Shoten bookstore overcame the effects of the tsunami, turn to the Outpost on page 80. Takeshi Kimoto is Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. He received his PhD in East Asian Literature from Cornell University in 2010. His teaching and research interests broadly include modern Japanese...