Paper short abstract:

Global memory trends are highly influenced by the Holocaust. Also the museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki bare similarities with aesthetic trends deriving from Holocaust memorialization. My presentation asks: are these mere aesthetic borrowings or specific Japanese responses to global trends?

Paper long abstract:

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only two cities being bombed by nuclear weapons which resulted in a unique form of memorialization of both events. A focal point of this memorialization are the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. The museums not only document the damages, and the continuous suffering of the victims inflicted by heat, blast and radiation but also emphasize the need to prevent the future use of atomic bombs and call for world peace. This universal appeal has established both museums as a part of the global memory culture. Within this global memory culture, the memory of the Holocaust is highly influential, since the Holocaust came to serve as a symbol of the radical evil, used to stigmatize atrocities globally and invite empathy for the victims.

In the field of memorialization this "universalization of the Holocaust" (Alexander 2002) has led to the globalization of aesthetic standards in museum designs of memorial museums worldwide, deriving from Holocaust memorials such as Yad Vashem or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as role models. This "Holocaust template" (Radoninić 2019) has influenced many exhibitions outlays, those dealing with Nazi atrocities and those devoted to other instances of political violence and genocide, including the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Bosnia or the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. Also the recently (2019) reopened exhibition at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum bares similarities with aesthetic trends in museum design coming from the Holocaust musealization e.g., a dark, confined and immersive setting and the individual representation of the victims.

In my presentation I will examine the memorialization of the atomic bombing and ask whether the similarities in narration and aesthetics with the "Holocaust template" are mere aesthetic borrowings or whether these are the Japanese responses to a global trend in memorialization and musealization of wide-scale atrocities.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will focus on nuclear power plant visitor centers, not nuclear plants themselves. Based on exhaustive surveys for more than seven years, the author attempts to define the actual condition of them through studying their entertainment-focused exhibitions.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, we will focus on nuclear power plant visitor centers (VCs), not nuclear plants themselves. Based on exhaustive surveys for more than seven years, the author attempts to define the actual condition of them through studying their entertainment-focused exhibitions from the viewpoint of media studies and cultural sociology.

Even after the Fukushima tragedy in 2011, sixteen nuclear power plants with forty-two commercial reactors still exist in Japan. Fifteen of them have one or two VCs each, and the total number is more than twenty-five. As compare with the number of VCs, there are very few previous studies on it in English as well as Japanese because they have never been regarded as an essential factor in the nuclear issues. However, and therefore, VCs may bring us new insights into the relationship between nuclear industry and the public.

Many VCs are open from morning till evening seven days a week. Every exhibition provides information about nuclear power plants aiming to increase the agreement, instead of people's anxieties and doubts. In other words, VCs are used as a political apparatus to push the nuclear power policy that existed before the incident in Fukushima.

Since 2012, the author visited every VC and learned their significant points. First, exhibitions in VCs resemble amusement parks, such as Disneyland or Universal Studios, with their high-tech amusement machines and robots. Second, these entertainment-focused exhibitions try to attract visitors' interests in various ways, but actually, there are only a few visitors. It is a contradictorily strange situation. Third, in addition to the regular VCs, there is another type of facilities, such as a day spa or a botanical garden, which can be regarded as an agent of the nuclear industry, even though it has no explicit connection to that. It suggests that such type of facilities aims for the acceptance of nuclear power generation through providing the public with pleasure, not knowledge. In short, this research will reveal that entertainment is one of the critical factors in understanding communication as well as the reality at nuclear power plant VCs in Japan.

Paper short abstract:

Differences in loss and support in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate Prefectures after the 3.11 disaster lead to "hierarchies of affectedness." This paper examines such hierarchies' influence on the social dynamics among the disaster survivors and their abilities to shape the future of the Tohoku region.

Paper long abstract:

The domestic and international praise of the Japanese people for their mutual support and social cohesion after the 3.11 disasters corresponds with what has been called a disaster utopia - a short period of time when people support each other and seem to be equal in their suffering and loss. However, inevitable varieties of affectedness, their social consequences after large scale disasters and the impact on long-term recovery efforts remain understudied. Expanding on an earlier version, this paper examines how differences of loss and social and financial support in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate Prefectures influenced the social relations among the people of the disaster-affected areas and whose voices are heard when it comes to shaping the future of the Tohoku region. While some survivors feel unable to speak about their experiences or thoughts on recovery because their opinions might differ from the majority, or due to concerns of being seen as hindering recovery efforts, others hold back since "some might have it worse" or because of not being regarded as disaster victims. Especially since the borders and divisions deciding on support distributions not always reflect the actual or perceived sort of affectedness, many of the 3.11 survivors additionally feel treated unjust or lost in the recovery process. Based on almost three years of ethnographic field research in Northeast Japan, I propose that the different experiences in 3.11 resulted in the construction of such "hierarchies of affectedness" that ultimately impact social relations among disaster victims, and determine access to support measures and the ability to influence recovery processes.

Paper short abstract:

This study investigates factors that influence the change in the state of items that are bought by tourists as souvenirs at the Old Oyo National Park in Nigeria and Shiretoko National Park in Japan and what items are considered souvenirs and garbage pre-covid and post covid.

Paper long abstract:

Tourism is impacted by westernization, new identities, culture, and practices whilst the media most times, is the first point for reviews. Souvenirs and Garbage work hand in hand. Gordon 1986 categorized souvenirs into five groups, pictorial images, such as postcards, photographs, and illustrated books about particular regions as the most common souvenir. A piece of rock souvenirs is usually natural material or objects, such as rocks, shells, or pine cones taken from a natural environment. Symbolic shorthand souvenirs are usually manufactured products that evoke a message about the place from which they came, such as a flag from Nigeria or Japan or a drum sculpture from Nigeria, or a hair goblet from Japan. There are also souvenir markers which offer no particular reference to a place in themselves but has inscriptions of words which locate them in place and time, for instance, ‘a Hardrock café shirt from anywhere across the world’ with ‘the souvenirs distributed in Nigerian parties’ are markers with little meaning in itself which serves as a reminder of the restaurant and evidence of attendance will be examined in this work. Also, local product souvenirs include a variety of objects such as local foods and crafts. Can a souvenir depreciate into the garbage as time passes based on its location and the mobility and change in perception of the owner both in Nigeria and Japan? or the global pandemic as the case may be? This study will also consider stickers and inscriptions left behind by tourists at the parks as souvenirs with the garbage left behind by the tourists.