3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan

294 Pages·2013·2.824 MB·English

by  Richard J. Samuels

3.11

3.11
Disaster and
Change in Japan
Richard J. Samuels
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this
book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address
Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca,
New York 14850.
First published 2013 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Samuels, Richard J.
3.11 : disaster and change in Japan / by Richard J. Samuels.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8014- 5200- 0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Disaster relief— Political aspects– Japan. 2. Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami,
Japan, 2011— Political aspects. 3. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Japan, 2011— Political
aspects. 4. Japan— Politics and government– 21st century. I. Title. II. Title:
Three eleven.
HV555.J3S26 2013
363.34'9480952090512—dc23
2012037621
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible
suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing
of its books. Such materials include vegetable- based, low- VOC inks
and acid- free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine- free, or partly
composed of nonwood fi bers. For further information, visit our
website at www .cornellpress .cornell .edu .
Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the people of Tohoku.

Contents
Preface ix
1. The Status Quo Ante and 3.11 1
2. Never Waste a Good Crisis 24
3. Historical and Comparative Guidance 46
4. Dueling Security Narratives 80
5. Debating Energy Policy 110
6. Repurposing Local Government 151
Conclusion 180
Notes 201
References 245
Index 267
vii

Preface
Fall down seven times, get up eight.
—Edo Era aphorism
On 11 March 2011, Japan moved eight feet closer to North America, the
earth’s axis shifted, and the world turned upside down for 128 million Japa-
nese. Each of us watched in horror as twenty thousand people were washed
away by a devastating tsunami just minutes after a 9.0- magnitude earth-
quake shifted the seafl oor off the Sanriku coast in the Tohoku region of
northeastern Japan. And then, in slower motion, we witnessed the melt-
down of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, the displacement of 110,000
residents, and the spread of an invisible radioactive terror (real, even if only
imagined) across the archipelago. This quake, tsunami, and meltdown—
a triple catastrophe with no precedent— formally called the Great Eastern
Japan Disaster (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) soon became known simply
as “3.11.”
But 3.11 was hardly the fi rst earthquake to shake Japan. The antiquarian
booksellers of Jimbocho in downtown Tokyo bulge with evidence of previ-
ous disasters and how they were characterized in the popu lar media of their
day. In one of my favorite haunts, there is a cache of several thousand photo
postcards in a crate labeled simply “shinsai” (disasters). Most of them are
photos of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. They include views from the
hills above Ueno of the fl attened plain below, photos of smoldering buildings
in the Ginza and Otemachi, and a powerfully symbolic image of the gate of
the mighty Finance Ministry with nothing left standing behind it. Photos of
citizens streaming away from the fi res, of offi cials or ga niz ing relief supplies,
of the young crown prince (later the emperor Hirohito) surveying the dam-
age with municipal offi cials and military offi cers, and of charred corpses are
all available. They provide horrifying parallels— literal and metaphorical— to
the most recent crisis.
ix