Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone"'There is a nuclear ghost in Minamisåoma,' explained an elderly local who had a mysterious experiencing following the 2011 nuclear disaster in coastal Fukushima. In his highly original book, Ryo Morimoto explores the nuclear ghost that lives among the graying population that remained in the contaminated region after the fallout. Encountering radiation's shape-shifting effects on residents' livelihoods, nonhuman others, and local ecologies at the edges of evacuation zones, Morimoto asks: what happens if the state authority, scientific experts, and the public dispute over the extent, threshold, and nature of the harm from the accident? As one of the first in-depth ethnographic accounts of life after Fukushima in English, Nuclear Ghost offers dazzling stories from a diverse group of residents who aspire to live and die well in their now irradiated homes, offering a compelling case for reimaging relationality and accountability in the ever-atomizing world" |
Contents
List of Illustrations | 1 |
Estimated prefectureaverage effective doses to infants | 30 |
Minamisōma in 2014 | 39 |
figures | 45 |
A radiation monitoring post at Kita Hatohara Community Center | 63 |
Tengo preparing a garden at his temporary residence in Kashima | 86 |
The Compensation Game | 97 |
A conceptual diagram of the compensation game in Minamisōma | 108 |
Cloud Chamber at the Ibaraki Science Museum of Atomic Energy | 115 |
The front page of the booklet First Held in Minamisoma Radiation | 129 |
An evacuated room in Futaba town | 157 |
Accumulation of frecon baggu flexible containers in central Odaka | 166 |
Decontaminated waste in a temporary storage facility in Odaka | 172 |
A Wild Boar Chase | 211 |
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Common terms and phrases
Archive of Half-)Lives atomic Chornobyl Chornobyl accident city’s coastal Fukushima Compensation Game cultural damage decontamination decontamination workers dent despite environment environmental ethnography evacuation order evacuation zones experience fallout frecon baggu Fūhyō and Fūka Fukushima Dai-ichi Fukushima Nuclear Fukushima Prefecture Futaba Futaba district Futaba town Geiger counter genpatsu gray zone half-life half-life politics Haramachi haruki murakami Hatsumi higai human imagined individuals inside invisible issues Japan Japanese Kaleidoscopic Harm kasetsu Kashima Kashima district kilometers land livelihoods locals March Minamisōma Minamisōma residents Murakami Namie Naming the Nuclear Naoko Naraha Nishiyama nuclear accident nuclear energy nuclear ghost nuclear power plant Odaka Odaka district Oshima people’s persimmons postfallout potential presence of radiation radiation levels Radioactive Mosquitos radioisotopes radiological contaminants reactors region reopening resi Saeki scientific sense shapeshifting social Sōma state’s technoscientific Tengo TEPCO accident tion Tokyo told Toru tour town Tsubokura tsunami wanted