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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 February 2024
Abstract: The introduction presents the author’s thoughts on how people can continue to think of the nuclear accident in Fukushima, which is in the process of becoming nearly forgotten, as an ongoing problem. If forgetting is the act of eradicating traces of memory, then we all need to consciously reinforce the act of imprinting these traces of memory in our minds. The author introduces two memory traces that have been etched in her mind since 2011, and at the same time she promises the reader to continue telling these stories. When will these memories come to an end? The introduction suggests that it might be when each person’s memories will connect to the great current of history and then move toward universality in the symbolic act of forgiving.
Keywords: forgetting; memories; traces; system of sacrifice; no nukes
The project that led to the writing of Japanese Filmmakers in the Wake of Fukushima: Perspectives on Nuclear Disasters originated in 2011 when I was a visiting researcher at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. I had been there from 2010 with a plan to spend a year researching the “distorted (nejireta)” state of postwar Japan, based on analyses of films of the era. And then, the Great East Japan Earthquake happened on March 11, 2011. I was scheduled to return to Canada that summer but wondered whether I should move up the date and go home to my family earlier than I had intended. However, I decided to remain in Japan for another six months as originally planned to perceive firsthand the information and images disseminated through the mass media and the Internet. Following my return to Canada in August that year, I worked to change my research topic by applying for new research funds for this project, which entailed undergoing many cumbersome processes. These efforts resulted in spending another year at the International Research Center in 2016–2017 researching visual culture in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Therefore, this book owes itself to these two years spent at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
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