Japanese Photographers Reflect on Fukushima

In the wake of Japan’s March 11, 2011 double disaster, the Tōhoku tsunami and subsequent reactor failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, a group of over 200 pensioners volunteered to stay in the radiation-filled facilities. It was one of the most surprising and fascinating reactions to come from the tragedy. “I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live,” Yasuteru Yamada, leader of the so-called Skilled Veteran’s Corps, told the BBC at the time. “Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. Therefore us older ones have less chance of getting cancer.”

Five years later, the many ways Japanese citizens have internalized the nightmarish events of 3/11 continue to be profound and informative of the human condition. A new show at The Japan Society gathers photographers’ attempts to address their own emotions on the subject. The show opened on the five-year anniversary of the disaster, situating frames filled with deteriorating buildings, decimated landscapes, and people in one place. Images created by artists including Tomoko Yoneda, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Lieko Shiga tell the story of how a country dealt with—and continues to deal with—devastation.

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The show, entitled In the Wake: Japanese Photographer Respond to 3/11, was originally displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and is now presented by the Japan Society and Gallery Director Yukie Kamiya. “During the events of 3/11, I was actually still living and working in Hiroshima in my previous position as Chief Curator of the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima MoCA),” she tells The Creators Project. Hiroshima is in western Japan, so Kamiya felt few of the earthquake’s physical effects, aside from stunned silence of the flavor Americans will remember from September 11, 2001.

She continues, “The tsunami and nuclear power plant accident that followed after the 3/11 earthquake conjured negative memories of Hiroshima. It was the beginning of a moment of shock tied to the historical trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although we had been educated to oppose nuclear weapons, we were ashamed at our ignorance of the dangers related to nuclear power.”

In the Wake is divided into three sections: documentary, experimental, and narrative. Tomoko Yoneda’s serene photos offer a unique perspective of the people, plants, and animals directly after the events of 3/11. Experimental photographer Nobuyushi Araki was in Tokyo during the tsunami, also physically insulated from its effects. Kamiya says he “took the negatives of photographs that he had taken around and on 3/11/11 and physically slashed them. They relate to his own struggle with cancer, and the loss of his sight in one eye.” Lieko Shiga lived in a village in the Tōhoku region, documenting its history, since 2008. She captures images that unpack the village’s most important human events, contributing those of 3/11 to the exhibition.

“In New York, where the experience of disaster is no foreign subject, I hope that visitors to In the Wake are able to connect the experience of 3/11 to personal experiences,” Kamiya says. “When looking at the photographs exhibited, I want viewers to feel the power of artistic creation in the face of catastrophe, and the empowerment connected to these responses.”

She continues, “It is important to remember that this exhibition is not meant to sensationalize the power of disaster. Rather, by focusing on the response of artists as human beings, we hope that the audience will be able to consider the ways that we can respond to disaster in our own lives.”