Reading books about the Tohoku earthquake.
I've been reading a lot of books about the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, so here are my thoughts on them.
Richard Lloyd Parry, Spirits of the Tsunami
Reportage of 3.11 by a British journalist. The mainstream story is about the counselor at Okawa Elementary School, but I was impressed by the "hidden" parts of the story that are not often talked about. The "hidden" part that is not often talked about is that of the spirits.
When I said, "That's a ghost, isn't it?" the person who experienced it angrily said, "Don't call it a ghost.
Death came so suddenly that people were cut off from living, and people were deprived of the tomorrow they were supposed to have. They have not gone through the ritual of death, which means that they have not died properly.
We don't have the right words to describe this space between life and death, so we get angry and say, "Don't call them ghosts.
The author, Richard Lloyd Parry, is British. The author, Richard Lloyd Parry, is an Englishman, and Lafcadio Hearn, who is very familiar to us Japanese, is also an Englishman. As Koizumi Yakumo, he wrote many ghost stories about Japan. The climate of the Tohoku region of Japan and the climate of England, probably Celtic, have a sense of the "space between life and death.
This is neither fantasy nor the occult. This is not fantasy or occult, but it is also not the pseudo-real world that we see on TV or in the mass media. I had thought that only literature and movies could express this, but the fact that it was transmitted through reportage by a first-rate journalist is very significant.
Itou Seikou, "Fukushima Monologue" and "Imaginary Radio
When I read Itou's "Imagination Radio," I was surprised to find that he had written about this very thing. I was surprised.
A DJ who hasn't been to the side of death uses his imagination to talk on an imaginary radio. The story is interspersed with episodes of various people in similar situations.
I guess this is "Night on the Galactic Railroad" by Seiko Itoh (as a side note, I also thought it was "Night on the Galactic Railroad" when I read "Lose the Kip" by Natsuki Ikezawa).
) Come to think of it, the author, Kenji Miyazawa, was a Tohoku man. If "Night on the Galactic Railroad" depicts the scene of Campanella's dying journey from Giovanni's point of view, then Campanella himself is DJ Ark. But DJ Ark is not as downhearted as Campanella. He is energetic and never forgets to make people laugh. He just worries about his wife and children. But finally, he's allowed to go. Please read this part yourself, you will definitely cry.
The structure of the novel is a DJ's monologue, so I found it difficult to read, but when I realized that this is a stage play, the world of the novel expanded greatly.
A monologue play. If it were a stage space called theater, this "Imaginary Radio" would be an even more amazing device. Or maybe it's a circuit. A device that connects this world and the next. Sou-image radio.
Fukushima Monologue.
Anyway, what an amazing thing ordinary people are. A convenience store clerk who just wants to save cows, or a town hall employee who broadcasts on the radio in a disaster area. They are all people who are standing on the same ground as us.
As the introduction of the book says, this is "the 'Pure Land of Bitterness and Sea' of the 21st century," but I wondered why the impression I received was so different. Minamata disease was a 100% man-made disaster, and it is hard to distort the fact that it created a structure of tragedy, anger, and struggle. Then, what about the earthquake in the Tohoku region?
It may be a natural disaster because of the first earthquake and tsunami, but isn't the Fukushima nuclear accident that followed a man-made disaster?
Why should we, ordinary people, have to make the effort to cultivate our fields by constantly measuring radiation levels, replacing soil, reading literature, taking lectures at universities, getting help from others, and repeating trial and error for years until we can produce something we can ship?
The aforementioned Richard Lloyd Parry, in his book "The Spirit of the Tsunami," said that the Japanese should be more angry. I think he's right.
Of course the people in the "Fukushima Monologue" are angry. But I think what we need to take more initiative is to have a strong will that the "culture of life" that we have been living should not end here.
As an architect, I heard a story like this. It was after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
The landscape of a traditional fishing village on Awaji Island disappeared (due to the earthquake). It was a landscape of traditional Japanese houses. What happened after that was that the big manufacturers bought up all the land and built houses with the land (they called it "green field harvesting"), and the landscape became completely different. The landscape of tiled roofs has been replaced by siding.
In Fukushima, they could have chosen to quit farming, or to give up their cattle in areas with high radiation levels. This is natural and unavoidable. But a small number of people took action and said no.
Culture has to be passed on by someone.
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