Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the materialities of radiation unsettle the boundaries between rational and hysterical, ground and digital, risk and safety and ultimately, heaven and hell. It is based on fieldwork among Japanese radiation evacuees post Fukushima disaster.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the materialities and the gender of radiation. On 11 March 2011, the great earthquake shook Northern Japan. The area was soon swept away by one of the largest Tsunami that the region has ever seen. A few days later, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant experienced meltdowns. The government swiftly announced that the situation was under control. Social media, however, was filled with warnings about the threat of radiation exposure. Because radiation is hidden underneath the ground and its long-term effects on health not known, there is no way to adjudicate the difference between the two discourses. In moments of uncertainty, women often bear the blame for any misfortune which arises from that uncertainty. Under the masculinist state's policy of reconstruction, concerns over radiation levels were labeled as feminine, hysterical and antiscientific. The prohibitory nature of public discussion had led some Japanese families to evacuate overseas and to consider permanently leaving Japan. Some of them have built digital networks of citizen groups against radiation. Based on my fieldwork with some overseas evacuees, this paper explores how the materialities of radiation unsettle the boundaries between rational and hysterical, ground and digital, risk and safety and ultimately, heaven and hell.