Dear SSJ-Forum members,

The French Institute of Research on Japan at the Maison franco-japonaise is pleased to invite you to its next conference.

Being Oddly Nested:
Anthropology of the Nuclear Energy Machine views from the margins

Friday, September 20 / 18:00 - 20:00
  room 601 & online / conference / in English without translation

Speaker: Yasushi UCHIYAMADA (Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba)

After the 3/11, the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, I began visiting Sanriku in order to conduct fieldwork with the aim of learning about people's knowledge on their Umwelt (their surrounding environment) with particular reference to great tsunamis. What then makes Fukushima so different? I took off a different journey into the unknown terrain of lifeworlds contaminated by radioactivity of radionuclides emitted from the supposed to be closed nuclear reactors in the summer of 2013. My anthropological journey led me from Fukushima to La Hague, to Sellafield, to New Mexico, to uranium mines in Mounana in Gabon, to the Gambier Islands near the nuclear testing sites in French Polynesia where I encountered various nested nuclear beings. I shall share with you the images and experiences of these nested beings viewed from the margins. Why from the margins? First, nuclear parks, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, nuclear waste storage facilities, geological disposal sites, nuclear testing sites, etc. are all located in the margins, whereas their fruits are consumed in the metropole. Second, the voices and the views of those who are affected in the margins are lopsidedly underrepresented. Yet, we are all nested. Welcome to the unknows without-within!

Moderator: Sophie HOUDART (FRIJ-MFJ)
Organization: FRIJ-MFJ

Registration: https://www.mfj.gr.jp/agenda/2024/09/20/2024-09-20_atomic_energy/index_ja.php