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Paper short abstract

Shigemi Nakagawa will analyze Tsushima Yuko's final novel, “Celebrating the Half-Life of cesium” (2016), from the perspective of world literature. Tsushima confronted with the deeply fear of war, disaster, the nuclear age, and ethnic division while repeatedly examining the issues of humanity

Paper long abstract

Tsushima Yuko is a writer who has boldly challenged her times, as evidenced by her nomination for the Nobel Prize. Emerging from the I-novel genre, she began publishing monumental works touching on grand human history in the 1990s. After publishing Mountain of Fire: Account of a Wild Monkey (Hi no Yama—Yamazaru-ki) (1998) and Too Savage (Amarini yaban’na)(2008), the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 profoundly impacted her, resulting in Wildcat Dome (Yamaneko dōmu)(2013) and Jakka Duxu-ni: A Tale of the Sea's Memory (Jakka dofuni: umino kiokuno monogatari)(2016). Her last publication was the short story Celebrating the Half-Life of Cesium (Hangenki o iwatte)(2016). There is, however, a novella called Time of hunting (Kari no jidai) subsequently published by her daughter in 2016.

This presentation will focus on Celebrating the Half-Life of Cesium to explore the connection between historical memory and nuclear issues. Set in near-future Japan, the novel begins with the state holding a celebratory event to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War II. The government’s optimistic propaganda claims that the radioactive cesium-137 damage from the nuclear power plant accident during the Great East Japan Earthquake has entered its half-life. Japan has become an internationally isolated military dictatorship. The elderly female protagonist, who was affected by the disaster in Tohoku and evacuated to Tokyo, returns to her hometown after an extended absence. However, she finds a desolate place where the Tohoku, Ainu, and Okinawan people—marginalized by the Yamato ethnic group—have been abandoned.

　While depicting a near-future dystopia, the novel denounces the contemporary situation spreading worldwide: how a state degenerates and oppresses its people. In her final novel, Tsushima depicts the global disasters and nuclear terror, as well as the decay of the humanities. I wish to analyze this novel from the perspective of world literature.