3/11 Disasters - JPNS 3881 Environment, Nature, and Disaster in Japanese Literature and Culture (Brown) - Rare Books Collection Virtual Visit - Research Guides at University of Colorado Boulder

Introduction

In March of 2011, northern Japan witnessed a confluence of disasters on a tragic scale. A massive earthquake in the Pacific led to a major tsunami, which devastated areas near the coast. It also damaged the Fukushima nuclear reactor, leading to radioactive contamination in the nearby region. The following items, largely photographic in nature, explore the harsh realities of these major disasters for the people of Japan.

Image of the ruins of the Ogawa School from the 3/11 disasters, taken in 2018

Photography Books Relating to the 3/11 Disasters

You can find the following photography books at CU relating to the 3/11 disasters (some only in the Rare Books Collection, some you can check out). Check the previews below to get a sense of what the books are like!

In the Wake by Anne Nishimura Morse; Anne Havinga; Michio Hayashi; Marilyn Ivy; Tomoko Nagakura
Call Number: Norlin HV600 2011.T64 I456 2015 c.2 (you can check this out!)
ISBN: 9780878468270
Publication Date: 2015-05-26
The catastrophic events of March 11, 2011 - the earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - have been called the triple disaster in Japan. Among the first artists to respond to these experiences were photographers. Some, including those with personal ties to the affected Tohoku region, attempted to document the devastation, drawing on a long history of depicting natural disasters in Japanese art. As the immediate effects of the earthquake and tsunami gave way to the slowly unfolding nuclear disaster, artists began to respond to the challenges of depicting an invisible threat that calls up the collective memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The resulting images assembled in this lavishly illustrated volume are by turns poignant, searing, disturbing and often strangely beautiful. With interpretive essays from leading American and Japanese scholars and statements from the artists themselves, this book presents the unfolding process of how photography can address destruction, social change, anxiety and memory, through images that express emotions beyond words.

Preview of In the Wake

Read more about the exhibits related to In the Wake, and see some of the images from them, at this site

Mighty Silence by Yasushi Handa (Photographer)
Call Number: RBC DHT OS 13868
ISBN: 9788857215570
Publication Date: 2013-03-05
An acclaimed fashion photographer provides a personal, luminous, and moving account of post-tsunami Japan. This volume is an extraordinary photographic report by the famous Japanese fashion photographer Yasushi Handa, taken a few weeks after the terrible earthquake and tsunami that battered the eastern coastline of Japan in March 2011. It includes the detailed history of the provinces affected by the disaster, an accessible scientific explanation of the reasons why such an event can occur, and a look to the future that talks clearly about how damage can be limited and how nuclear disasters can be prevented. The book also reveals the composure of the Japanese people and their incredible capacity to resurrect themselves. The photographs were exhibited in Tokyo, Kobe, and Okinawa between January and March 2012 and were admired by a great number of visitors.

Preview of Mighty Silence

Tsunami, photographs, and then : lost & found project by Munemasa Takahashi
Call Number: RBC DHT OS 14430
Publication Date: 2014
Both an artistic exhibit and an attempt to reunite families with items lost to the 3/11 tsunami, the lost and found project is a response to attempt to center people and their families in the tragedy of the 3/11 disasters.

Preview of the Lost and Found Project Book

For more information on the lost and found project, see their website's about page: http://lostandfound311.jp/en/about/
To see more images of the exhibitions, follow this link: http://lostandfound311.jp/en/exhibition/

Reset--Beyond Fukushima by Adriano A. Biondo (Editor)
Call Number: Art and Architecture TR820 .O23 2012
ISBN: 9783037782927
Publication Date: 2012-03-25
Ever since the first days following the disastrous events that took place in Japan in March 2011, photojournalist Kazuma Obara has been visiting the sites and the people affected. He even visited the Fukushima power plant itself, where he talked to the workers involved. The series of portraits and interviews he produced is published for the first time in this publication. Obara's photographs offer touching insights about the consequences of the events surrounding Fukushima. Recollected in this book, they offer a long-term perspective and pose the question catastrophe are, for the people on site as well as worldwide. This book thus offers a view that goes beyond the pure facts on site - Beyond Fukushima. English and Japanese text. ILLUSTRATIONS: 130 b/w & colour

Preview of Reset - Beyond Fukushima

Artistic Responses to 3/11

Book artist Romano Hänni produced a unique artistic work in response to the 3/11 disasters titled It is bitter to leave your home. The book is hand-printed on paper towels instead of normal paper! Check out all of his work here: https://romano-haenni.ch/

Hänni's website includes a PDF copy of this unique artist book, which is embedded just below or you can find at this link

Note that the images are not always clear enough to be able to read all the text.

Photographing Fukushima's Fallout

Recent CU student and Rare Books Collection intern Conor O'Hara ('20 History) documented towns, largely abandoned, near Fukushima in 2018 and 2019. He arranged his photographs in the following book he titled Unnatural Disaster and Migration in Fukushima. These images document abandonment, decay, and reconstruction 8 years after the 3/11 disasters in areas that continue to see high levels of radiation.

Rare and Distinctive Collections

rad@colorado.edu

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Reading Room: Norlin E1B43

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Sean Babbs

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