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The roads to disaster, or rewriting history from the margins—Yū Miri’s JR Ueno Station Park Exit

The roads to disaster, or rewriting history from the margins—Yū Miri’s JR Ueno Station Park Exit In Ruth Ozeki’s words, 3.11/Fukushima represents a “rift in time”, which not only split an imagined temporal continuum into before and after, but makes the before appear in a different light. In the present article, Yū Miri’s JR Ueno-eki kōenguchi is read as a literary response to, and expression of, this perceptual shift. Yū’s focus on an exploited migrant worker from rural Fukushima who spends his last years as a homeless in the capital chimes in with the post-3.11 discourse about the subordinate position of Northern Japan within the Japanese nation-state. The novel can thus be interpreted as a palimpsestic corrective; a critical rewriting of Japan’s post-war history from the viewpoint of those whose existence has been marginalized, if not completely erased from collective memory. To illustrate this point, the analysis focuses on Yū’s deconstruction of the myth surrounding the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (an implicit criticism of the upcoming post-nuclear 2020 Olympics), as well as her provocative juxtaposition of a homeless and the Japanese imperial family. It is argued that by problematizing historical memory and forgetting, discursive visibility and invisibility, Yū not only intertwines various narrative threads, but also manages to re-connect the before and after the disaster in a new, critical way. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Contemporary Japan Taylor & Francis

The roads to disaster, or rewriting history from the margins—Yū Miri’s JR Ueno Station Park Exit

Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina
Contemporary Japan , Volume 31 (2): 17 – Jul 3, 2019
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The roads to disaster, or rewriting history from the margins—Yū Miri’s JR Ueno Station Park Exit

Abstract

In Ruth Ozeki’s words, 3.11/Fukushima represents a “rift in time”, which not only split an imagined temporal continuum into before and after, but makes the before appear in a different light. In the present article, Yū Miri’s JR Ueno-eki kōenguchi is read as a literary response to, and expression of, this perceptual shift. Yū’s focus on an exploited migrant worker from rural Fukushima who spends his last years as a homeless in the capital chimes...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2019 German Institute for Japanese Studies
ISSN
1869-2737
eISSN
1869-2729
DOI
10.1080/18692729.2019.1578848
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In Ruth Ozeki’s words, 3.11/Fukushima represents a “rift in time”, which not only split an imagined temporal continuum into before and after, but makes the before appear in a different light. In the present article, Yū Miri’s JR Ueno-eki kōenguchi is read as a literary response to, and expression of, this perceptual shift. Yū’s focus on an exploited migrant worker from rural Fukushima who spends his last years as a homeless in the capital chimes in with the post-3.11 discourse about the subordinate position of Northern Japan within the Japanese nation-state. The novel can thus be interpreted as a palimpsestic corrective; a critical rewriting of Japan’s post-war history from the viewpoint of those whose existence has been marginalized, if not completely erased from collective memory. To illustrate this point, the analysis focuses on Yū’s deconstruction of the myth surrounding the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (an implicit criticism of the upcoming post-nuclear 2020 Olympics), as well as her provocative juxtaposition of a homeless and the Japanese imperial family. It is argued that by problematizing historical memory and forgetting, discursive visibility and invisibility, Yū not only intertwines various narrative threads, but also manages to re-connect the before and after the disaster in a new, critical way.

Journal

Contemporary Japan – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jul 3, 2019

Keywords: Fukushima/3.11; Yū Miri; JR Ueno-eki kōenguchi (JR Ueno Station Park Exit); palimpsest; historical (un)representation; Tokyo Olympics

References

  • Minamisōma-shi Odaka ni shoten o kaiten suru sakka Yū Miri san o sanbi suru masukomi no hijōshiki [The mass media’s praise of writer Yū Miri opening a bookstore in Odaka, Minamisōma City, completely lacks common sense]
  • Enerugī shokuminchi toshite no Fukushima [Fukushima as energy colony]
  • Systems of irresponsibility and Japan’s internal colony
  • Shisha no gen’ei: Yū Miri JR Ueno eki kōen guchi [Shadows of the dead: Yū Miri’s JR Ueno Station Park Exit]
  • Aidentiti no datsukōchiku toshite no “jibun-sagashi”: Yū Miri Hachigatsu no hate ron [Self-discovery as deconstruction of the self in Yū Miri’s Ends of August]
  • Asia pride, China fear, Tokyo Anxiety: Japan looks back at Beijing 2008 and forward to London 2012 and Tokyo 2016
  • Former Japan PM accuses Abe of lying over Fukushima pledge
  • The hidden face of disaster: 3.11, the Historical structure and future of Japan’s Northeast
  • Presentation by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the 125th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
  • The constitution of Japan
  • The right to adequate housing: Evictions of the homeless and the elderly caused by the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo
  • The 1964 Tokyo Olympics as political games
  • Conversation with Ruth Ozeki: We are all time-beings
  • Keikai Kuiki [Caution Zone]
  • Fukushima’s decontamination workers from the margins of society are being “exploited”