本:「フクシマ」論 (2011)

開沼博(2011)『「フクシマ」論:原子力ムラはなぜ生まれたのか』青土社

本書は日本の原子力の分析を通して日本の戦後成長における地方の自発的服従の歴史的形成過程を考察した学術書である。著者は、原子力を地方に導入したい「中央」とその原子力を受け入れ維持したい「地方」によって構成される原子力ムラという概念を提示しながら、「戦後成長の基盤」としての原子力(経済)「地方の統治装置」としての原子力(政治)「幻想のメディア」としての原子力(文化)という視座から、戦後日本における原子力を分析している。原子力ムラには、行政・電力産業・政治家・学者・マスメディア・反・脱原発団体などを含む「中央の側にある閉鎖的・保守的な原子力行政」などで構成されたムラ(<原子力ムラ>と表記)がある一方で、「地方の側にある原発および関連施設を抱える地域」によって構成されたムラ(「原子力ムラ」と表記)が存在する。著者によれば、原子力の導入を通して自国のエネルギー資源の確保を目指す<原子力ムラ>(中央)と原子力を受け入れることを通して故郷の永続的発展を望む「原子力ムラ」(地方)という二項対立的な構造の中で、原子力が2つの構造をつなぐ媒介としての役割を果たすことを通して戦後の経済成長が達成されたという。加えて、著者は戦後の経済成長の過程において「原子力ムラ」(地方)がマスメディアに映された自らの「欠如」を自覚し、愛郷的精神からその「欠如」を埋め合わせるために自発的に原子力を受け入れていったと指摘する。しかし、「原子力ムラ」による原子力の自発的な受け入れが皮肉なことに「原子力ムラ」(地方)を「原子力ムラ」(地方)として固定化してしまったという。本書は著者が東京大学大学院学際情報学府修士課程に提出した修士論文をもとにして出版され、第65回毎日出版文化賞(人文社会部門)を受賞した。構成は以下の通り。

 序章  原子力ムラを考える前提―戦後成長のエネルギーとは

第一章 原子力ムラに接近する方法

第二章 原子力ムラの現在

第三章 原子力ムラの前史―戦時~一九五〇年代半ば

第四章 原子力ムラの成立―一九五〇年代半ば~一九九〇年代半ば

第五章 戦後成長はいかに達成されたのか―服従のメカニズムの高度化

第六章 戦後成長が必要としたもの―服従における排除と固定化

終章  結論―戦後成長のエネルギー

補章  福島からフクシマへ

補章は福島原発事故発生以降に追加された。著者はここで福島原発事故以降における脱・原発運動の問題点について次のように指摘する。「原発を動かし続けることへの志向は一つの暴力であるが、ただ純粋にそれを止めることを叫び、彼らの生存の基盤を脅かすこともまた暴力になりかねない。そして、その圧倒的なジレンマのなかに原子力ムラの現実があることが「中央」の推進にせよ反対にせよ「知的」で「良心的」なアクターたちによって見過ごされていることにこそ最大の問題がある。」(372-373頁)

本書は、戦後日本において原子力が果たした役割に加えて福島原発事故の原因について詳しく説明している。もともと修士論文として書かれた作品なので、大学生以上のテキストとしてのぞましい

- Yasuhito Abe

FILM: Ashes to Honey (2010)

Kamanaka, Hitomi. 2010. Ashes to Honey. Group Gendai.

“What is the best course of development for humankind?” director Hitomi Kamanaka asks in her 2010 film, Ashes to Honey. This documentary builds an argument for the necessity of a sustainable future by portraying a local struggle to preserve fishing and farming on the small island of Iwaishima, on the Pacific side of southwestern Japan, against a nuclear power plant proposed to be built across the bay. Filmed over the course of three years, Kamanaka and her crew gradually gained the trust of the islanders as a voice to adequately represent their concerns to a larger audience. Although completed before the Fukushima disaster, this film helps further historical understandings of ongoing debates related to nuclear power that have swept Japan and much of the world.

The trajectory of the film spans across local, global, and national arenas, and begins with one of the younger residents of Iwaishima, a man in his 30s named Takashi. Like most young residents, he had left the island for higher education. Uniquely, Takashi, who is son to the outspoken representative of the 27-year long struggle against the local power company, Chugoku Denryoku (“Chuden”), had also returned to the island to make his own life: a struggle at best since he began his endeavor with no knowledge of how to live off the land. Through Takashi and Chuden, the film presents its central problematic: both argue that development must take place but each have vastly different ideas about what a path to the future entitles.

The film expands its perspective on this issue by shifting its focus from Iwaishima to rural Sweden. Interviews with people involved in sustainability projects of small and large scales show how national administrators embraced a variety of renewable energy projects implemented by grass-roots efforts, ultimately ushering in a new era for national energy policy. This section serves as a counterpoint to Japan’s policies, which do little to discourage energy market monopolization, and offers a concrete model for the kind of change that Kamanaka advocates.

The emotionally evocative final third of Ashes to Honey depicts the actual practices of protest as the villagers’ fishing boats face off with Chuden’s ships in rain and rough seas. These sequences are especially potent for viewers familiar with Japan’s deep history of non-violent protest, such as the similar actions of the fishing collectives of Ominato against the government’s experimental, nuclear-powered ship the Mutsu. In contrast to the use of violence to resolve differences, Kamanaka’s film nods to the visual style of Tsuchimoto Noriaki’s “Minamata” films and stands as an example to students of how conflict can be politically charged yet non-violent.

Just as it effectively uses Swedish points of view to expand its perspective, educators can use Ashes to Honey to expand students’ perspectives on Fukushima and nuclear power in general. Kamanaka’s documentation of a complicated human story presents a starkly simple choice between two distinct paths of development: one sustainable and one dependent upon nuclear power, with all of the risks that it brings.

- Kenneth Masaki Shima

BOOK: Tal-Haek [Getting Off of Nuclear]: Post-Fukushima and the Logic of Energy Transformation (Korean, 2011)

Energy and Climate Policy Research Institute (South Korea) ed. 2011. Tal-Haek: Post-Fukushima wa Energy Jeonwhan Sidae-eui Nonri. 탈핵: 포스트 후쿠시마와 에너지 전환 시대의 논리 [Getting Off of Nuclear: Post-Fukushima and the Logic of Energy Transformation] Seoul: Imagine.

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima shocked South Korea, Japan’s geographically closest neighbor. Repercussions and responses within South Korea, however, have been multivalent. In contrast to Germany and other countries that have set out to stop or curtail nuclear power systems, the South Korean government has remained determined to increase its nuclear power capacity to provide for up to 59% of its entire electricity production by 2030. To implement its nuclear plans, the government recently designated a couple of sites for new nuclear power plant construction. Given other countries’ more cautious approach to nuclear power in the wake of Fukushima disaster, South Korea’s unabashed promotion of nuclear power suggests a need for wide attention and discussion.

A recently published collection of essays entitled Tal-Haek [脱核], the namesake of which refers to the “Getting Off of Nuclear” process, aims to do just this. The book project, organized by the Energy and Climate Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank that promotes a vision of “a world without nuclear power,” raises serious dissenting voices against the South Korean government’s nuclear power strategies. One essay by YU Jung Min, an expert in energy policy, particularly underscores the thematic concerns of the book through its attention to the similarities between Japan and South Korea in the “socio-political environments around nuclear power development.” Both countries relied on active government intervention to industrialize, Yu points out, and their nuclear power programs required their governments’ central planning and support. This government-led process created decision-making structures that did not embrace democratic and transparent procedures. Since both Japan and South Korea lacked natural resources for energy production, both welcomed nuclear power by invoking the concerns of energy security. Based on these observations, Yu and other authors call for “cautious social discussion on the energy policy in South Korea, one of the most active nuclear power nations in the world” (pp. 69-70).

In addition to Yu’s contribution, the lead essay by KIM Myung Jin surveys the history of nuclear power from the Manhattan Project, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl to the “Nuclear Renaissance” in the 21st century. LEE Heon Seok’s essay asks whether more nuclear power plants in Korea would be “a blessing or a disaster,” especially pointing out the lack of democratic procedures and legal bases in Korean government’s nuclear plant constructions. PARK Jin Hee, the Institute’s director, examines the history of Germany’s energy transition from the 1960s to the post-Fukushima period, suggesting a possible role model for South Korea’s reconsideration of its energy policy. The last essay by KIM Hyun Woo, which bears the namesake of the collection, argues that the anti-nuclear movement should consist of more than just slogans and offer a concrete “tal-haek scenario” based on quantitative analysis and action plans.

It remains to be seen whether this book would be successful in engendering more debates on nuclear power and related policy in Korean society, but the book will be useful for classroom discussions on Korea’s future direction in the post-Fukushima age.

-Chihyung Jeon

NOTE: Social History of Nuclear Power: Its Development in Japan (2011 edition)

新版 原子力の社会史

Editors’ Note: Readers may be interested to know that a new edition of Hitoshi Yoshioka’s book Genshiryoku no shakaishi: sono Nihon-teki tenkai (A Social History of Nuclear Power: Its Development in Japan) was published by Asahi Shimbunshuppan in October 2011. Click here to view an annotation based on the first edition, printed in 1999.

ARTICLE: Containing the Atom: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Nuclear Power in the United States and South Korea (2009)

Jasanoff, Sheila, and Sang-Hyun Kim. 2009. “Containing the Atom: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Nuclear Power in the United States and South Korea.” Minerva 47: 119-146. http://www.springerlink.com/content/y2738665782223l6/

By introducing the concept of “sociotechnical imaginaries,” this article examines and compares the historical differences of such imaginaries concerning nuclear power between the United States and South Korea. For the United States, the dominant imagery for nuclear power was a potentially “runaway” technology that required responsible “containment” to keep it under control, whereas South Korea regarded nuclear power as “atoms for development” and “a symbol of the power of science and technology” that the state desired to indigenize. The disparate imaginaries for nuclear power have evolved into not only diverged power-plant designs, but also different “civic epistemologies,” policies, and strategies on radioactive waste management and risk assessment in each country.

As Jasanoff and Kim point out, the imaginaries concept helps explain how the states and their citizens reacted to a variety of nuclear disasters and challenges such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and anti-nuclear movements. This imaginaries concept may also help students analyze how nations that have been embracing nuclear power technology such as Japan, the United States, South Korea, France, Germany, and others, react to the recent triple disasters in Japan on March 11, 2011. Moreover, this article could be used to help encourage students to think about and invent alternative sociotechnical imaginaries of nuclear power beyond containment and development options to contribute to a better understanding of the controversial technology.

Ling-Fei Lin

CHAPTER: Technology versus Commercial Feasibility: Nuclear Power and Electric Utilities (1999)

Low, Morris, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka. 1999. “Technology versus Commercial Feasibility: Nuclear Power and Electric Utilities.” In Science, Technology and Society in Contemporary Japan, 66-81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This article is a chapter of a book coauthored by Morris Low, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka on the contemporary history of science and technology in Japan, published in the same year as Yoshioka’s book 原子力の社会史 (A Social History of Nuclear Power).   This chapter is a condensed account of the history of nuclear power in Japan, presumably authored primarily by Yoshioka.

Covering the early history of electric power before the war, the beginning of the atomic energy program in the 1950s, the introduction of reactors in the 1960s, and the fast breeder program up to the 1990s, this chapter examines the complex relations between the public good and private interests in technology and its industrial applications. While the power industry has been dominated by the private sector, and much of the responsibility for the nuclear power program has been carried by private power companies, the article argues that the distinction between private interests and the public good is blurred in Japan, and that it is not always clear which interests are served by the development of nuclear power.

As in Yoshioka’s book, this article claims that the development of nuclear reactors was motivated by a kind of “dual structure” consisting of two groups: MITI (the Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and private industry; and the STA (Science and Technology Agency) with public research corporations such as JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute). The main task of the MITI group is the gradual expansion of the commercial nuclear enterprise, mainly by importing US reactors, whereas the STA group’s mission is the research and development of as-yet commercially unproven technologies such as fast breeder reactor designs and nuclear fusion.

The article claims, for example, that the reason Japan adhered to the fast breeder program can be explained by this dual structure — specifically the STA’s attempt to exert its influence. It was not that Japan was attempting to become an international nuclear power through its plutonium program; rather, the STA was using this program to maintain its domestic influence. The STA’s two main areas of jurisdiction were nuclear research and Japan’s space program. The uncertainty of the future of the space program rendered it an unreliable foundation upon which to justify the agency’s existence. In contrast, nuclear power was seen as a better bet; thus, the agency prioritized research on fast breeder reactor technology.

— Kenji Ito

ARTICLE: ‘The Energy of a Bright Tomorrow:’ The Rise of Nuclear Power in Japan (2011)

Nelson, Craig. 2011. “‘The Energy of a Bright Tomorrow’: The Rise of Nuclear Power in Japan.” Origins 4 (9) (June). http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/article.cfm?articleid=57.

Ohio State University’s online journal Origins (tagline: “Current Events in Historical Perspective”) has published a highly accessible article by Craig Nelson, a historian of Japanese nuclear power. Nelson fulfills the promise of the journal’s tagline by providing a concise overview of the history of nuclear power in Japan, tracing the story of how a nation victimized by atomic bombings and viscerally opposed to nuclear weapons could become among the world’s most dependent upon nuclear power generation. This article, appropriate for readers at the high school level and up, will be useful for teachers and students who wish to learn more about the often-ignored history of “nukes” in Japan spanning the period between the three names that everyone now recognizes: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima.

Here is a brief excerpt:

We are haunted by the specter of our nuclear past. And given Japan’s complicated past with nuclear issues, it is especially surprising that Japan now has such a highly developed civilian nuclear power program, the third largest in the world after those of the United States and France.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fallout from the testing of Soviet nuclear weapons, and the Lucky Dragon Incident of 1954 left the Japanese in the 1950s with what some observers have called a “nuclear allergy.” Historically, Japanese anti-nuclear-weapons activists have been among the most vigorous in the world.

But the desperate need for energy to power Japan’s rapid economic growth and the complexities of post-World War II international relations together led the Japanese government to pursue nuclear power.

Choosing a nuclear policy was one thing, persuading an initially reluctant public was quite another.   The government and electric utilities promoted the nuclear power option relentlessly, starting a public relations campaign in the mid-1950s that strove to cement a positive image of nuclear power in the public eye.

In Futaba, a sign bearing the town’s motto—“nuclear power is the energy of a bright tomorrow”—now stands as an eerie reminder of that campaign for a nuclear-powered future.

But nuclear power has remained a sensitive issue and the public has long expressed ambiguous feelings and increasing concern toward it.  The government, by contrast, has remained a firm supporter, even in the face of incidents and disaster that gave rise to questions about the wisdom and safety of nuclear power, such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (1979).

Regardless of the outcome of the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, nuclear issues have played a starring role in Japanese politics, society, and culture for the past seventy years—one that is unlikely to disappear in the near future.

Read the full article at Origins.

Listen to an NPR interview with author Craig Nelson about the history of nuclear power in Japan.

BOOK: A Social History of Nuclear Power: Its Development in Japan (1999)

Editors’ Note: A new edition of this book was published in 2011 by Asahi Shimbunsha after  this annotation was originally posted. 

Yoshioka, Hitoshi 吉岡斉. 1999. Genshiryoku no shakaishi: sono Nihon-teki tenkai. 原子力の社会史―その日本的展開. Asahi Shinbunsha. 朝日新聞社.

Hitoshi Yoshioka gives an overview and analysis of the development of nuclear power in Japan from wartime to the late 1990s in this social history. In what stands as the most comprehensive and reliable single-volume Japanese scholarly work on this topic, Yoshioka argues that this development can be understood mainly as what he calls a “dual structure subgovernment model.” According to this model, policy decisions concerning nuclear power have been monopolized by two insider groups: the alliance of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Japan’s electric power industry on the one hand, and the Science and Technology Agency on the other, which in combination constitute a “subgovernment” outside of democratic control. The development of nuclear power in Japan is basically understood as a result of these groups’ power struggles to maintain or extend their vested interests. These two camps sometimes competed and sometimes made compromises with each other, but in either case they did not necessarily aim to achieve public good. Yoshioka writes that the development of nuclear power in Japan has been based on this model, but his rich narrative also includes various other aspects of the social issues surrounding the history of nuclear power in Japan.

Although Yoshioka’s book has remained the most authoritative source on the topic of nuclear power in Japan for over a decade, it unfortunately lacks documentation such as footnotes or end notes, although it does contain bibliographical notes, and the author occasionally refers to some sources within the text. The author has also published some portions of this book in the form of several articles, some of which appear in English.

– Kenji Ito

A longer review of this book in Japanese by Kenji Ito is available here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kenjiito/20110509/p1(日本語)

Suggested readings:

Low, Morris F., and Hitoshi Yoshioka. 1989. “Buying the ‘Peaceful Atom’: The Development of Nuclear Power in Japan.” Historia Scientiarum 38: 29-44.

Yoshioka, Hitoshi. 1999. “Technology versus Commercial Feasibility: Nuclear Power and Electric Utilities,” in Science, Technology and Society In Contemporary Japan, edited by Morris Low, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka, 66-81. Cambridge University Press.