Paper short abstract:

This presentation will focus on the nuclear-related information centers that have emerged in Hamadori-Fukushima after the so-called 3.11 tragedy. The author's exhaustive surveys will reveal their actual conditions and the significant points of exhibition narratives without the essential question.

Paper long abstract:

It has been almost 12 years since the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011. During the same period, I have continued fieldwork at nuclear-related information centers in Japan, European countries, and the United States, some of the results of which were reported at the EAJS in 2021.

This presentation will focus on the nuclear information centers that have emerged in Hamadori-Fukushima, one of the severe disaster areas, in recent years. The six main ones among them are as follows:

- The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum (Futaba Town)

- Commutan Fukushima (Miharu Town)

- Reprun Fukushima (Tomioka Town)

- Interim Storage Facility Information Center (Okuma Town)

- TEPCO Decommissioning Museum (Tomioka Town)

- The Tomioka Archive Museum (Tomioka Town)

Some of the above six centers aim to remember and transmit the experience of the disaster. In contrast, others say to promote understanding the need for radiation-contaminated waste disposal. Some of them are operated by local governments. In contrast, others are run by the national government or the electric power company. However, they all share an economic foundation directly or indirectly supported by the government budget.

Through my research on the exhibits at the six centers, I revealed two significant points in common. First, they also share a similar composition of the exhibition with the sentimental-tone narrative, such as the progress of the disaster, the harsh evacuation behavior, the difficult evacuation life, and the reconstruction that overcomes these hardships. Second, a question on the nuclear accident --- why has Fukushima had to suffer from such tragedy? --- is absent.

This question should be about essential. Nevertheless, the exhibit narratives portray the experience of the disaster as if it was a natural disaster or no such question existed. The absence of the question would obscure the responsibility. Therefore, we need to pay attention to it because it would suggest the mode of the national-local relationship in the post-Fukushima era.