Contaminated life: 'Hibakusha' in Japan in the nuclear age

Radioactive contamination has been dispersed into Japanese society on two main occasions - in 1945, and again in 2011. In the aftermath of the nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, this project employs archival and ethnographic research to examine the aesthetic materials of victims of radiation exposure (hibakusha) past and present. The inherent differences now in radioactivity confronting people in Japan demand a revised theoretical analysis of the representations of hibakusha. My overall objective is to understand how people conceive of and re-shape their lives amidst contamination. Outcomes will be workshops, peer-review publications, a digital archive and a monograph.