How to Make Sense of the “post” Disaster in Fukushima

• In Event: Studying Post-Disaster Politics in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Japan

Abstract

In the Pacific coast of Tohoku region, the “reconstruction” works have transformed the landscape of the tsunami-affected towns. As the gigantic seawalls separate the land from the sea, residential areas emerge on the raised plains. In this process, the porosity of everyday life, which has once extended across the zone where the land and the sea intermingled in fertile ways (which include occasional ecological disturbances), is being receded. The ocean is no longer perceptible, and the in-between marshlands, which were inhabited by a variety of animals and plants, disappear. In the restricted areas of Fukushima, decontamination is now complete and the former residents are encouraged to return homes. But indeterminacy dominates the process. We tend to judge the present situation from the point of view of the Peircean Thirdness, i.e., the habitual lawfulness. Yet, the agents interact without conforming to our habit. This partly explains why the disaster happened the way it did: it happened “beyond expectations.” The disaster was not predictable from the Peircean Thirdness. It took place in the region of the Firstness. Its effects, then, have spread into the Secondness. In this presentation, I shall revisit an area that lies between the Peircean Firstness and the Secondness to describe the process of emergent events. I shall, then, discuss the aftermath of multiple habits in the making in an area that lies between the Secondness and the Thirdness.

Author

• Yasushi Uchiyamada, University of Tsukuba