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Reading Tanaka Shōzō as an Ethical Person After Fukushima

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Tetsugaku Companion to Japanese Ethics and Technology

Part of the book series: Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy ((TCJP,volume 1))

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  • The original version of this chapter was revised: MS Mincho font was updated throughout the book for Japanese and Chinese characters. The correction to this book is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59027-1_13

Abstract

How can we understand what happened in Fukushima? It could be rather difficult to imagine a place where it is the most beautiful but at the same time the most polluted. This lack of imagination, or more precisely the incomprehensibility of what happened in Fukushima, can be explained in the following historical context: The apparently beautiful Japanese environment is indeed a victim of Japan’s project of modernization. It is important to re-examine the history of pollution in Modern Japan, and see how people reacted to major environmental disasters. I will discuss the case of Tanaka Shōzō 田中正造 (1841–1913), who is regarded as a social activist and the pioneer of democratic movement in Japan. I shall read Tanaka as an ethical person who develops an ethics to care about the nature as well as human beings.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Examples are former Tokyo Governor Mayor Ishihara, and Buddhist scholar Sueki Fumihiko.

  2. 2.

    “Reading the Yoshida Testimony 吉田調書を読み解く,” http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/foresight/yoshida-testimony_b_6828816.html?ncid=fcbklnkjphpmg00000001. In Japanese, Accessed 1 May 2017.

  3. 3.

    Hamadōri is one of three areas of Fukushima Prefecture. The other two areas are Aizu 会津 and Nakadōri 中通り.

  4. 4.

    The Chinese Translation of the message is published in Kitetsu: A Philosophical Magazine for Everyone (2014), supported by knowledge transfer fund of Chinese University of Hong Kong. Details of the project can be found here: http://www.orkts.cuhk.edu.hk/knowledge-transfer-initiatives/project-highlights/228-restoration-after-3-11-pain-suffering-memory-and-trauma-kpf13icf18. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    「足尾銅山鉱毒の儀につき質問書」, Tanaka (2004), Vol. 1, p. 99 (Hereafter abbreviated as TSB 1:99).

  7. 7.

    「ソノ被害ノ原因ニ就テハ未ダ確実ナル試験ノ成蹟ニ基ケル定論ノアルニアラズ」, TSB 1: 106.

  8. 8.

    「足尾銅山鉱毒の儀につき質問書」, TSB 1:106.

  9. 9.

    「足尾銅山工業所排出水ノ渡良瀬川ニ入ルモノ有毒物ヲ含有スルコトマタ事実ナリ云々」, TSB 1:107.

  10. 10.

    TSB 1: 108.

  11. 11.

    TSB 1:141.

  12. 12.

    TSB 1: 143.

  13. 13.

    TSB 1: 161.

  14. 14.

    Strong 1995: 116.

  15. 15.

    「民を殺すは國家を殺すなり。法を蔑にするは國家を蔑にするなり。皆自ら國を毀つなり。財用を濫り民を殺し法を亂して而して亡びざる國なし。之を奈何。右質問に及候也。」, TSB 1: 223. Translated from Strong (1995: 119) (modified).

  16. 16.

    It should be noted that in 2013, Upper House lawmaker Yamamoto Tarō 山本太郎, who was formerly an actor but became a politician after 3.11, approached Emperor Akihito during a party hosted by the Imperial Couple in Tokyo. Yamamoto’s goal of no nuke did not come true, as Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture restarted in 2015, despite potential threads from volcano eruption of Mt. Sakurajima as well as Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016.

    “Anti-nuclear lawmaker tries to get Emperor’s attention,” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/31/national/politics-diplomacy/anti-nuclear-lawmaker-tries-to-get-emperors-attention/#.Vd1X-fmqpBc. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  17. 17.

    「谷中問題ハ日露問題より大問題なり」, TSB 2:19.

  18. 18.

    「戦争ニ死するものよりハ寧ろ内地ニ虐政ニ死するもの多からん」, TSB 2: 34.

  19. 19.

    There is a Japanese drama about the last days of Ashio and Yanaka. Details can be found here: http://www.nhk.or.jp/dodra/ashio/index.html. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  20. 20.

    http://tankouisan.jp/data/year_history/index.html. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  21. 21.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768116/plotsummary. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  22. 22.

    http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc/events/fukushima-hula-girls.html. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  23. 23.

    On the rhetoric of Japan’s “green technology,” see Jonathan Taylor (1999), “Japan’s global environmentalism: rhetoric and reality,” Political Geography 18: 535–562.

  24. 24.

    https://ceas.uchicago.edu/news/what-march-11-means-me. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  25. 25.

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/31/national/boys-thyroid-cancer-casts-doubt-fukushimas-denials/#.WQqc0_mGPIU. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  26. 26.

    http://japan.kantei.go.jp/96_abe/statement/201309/07ioc_presentation_e.html. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  27. 27.

    Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA, 7 October 2013.

  28. 28.

    http://fukuichikankoproject.jp/project_en.html. Access 1 May 2017.

  29. 29.

    I borrow the idea of pilgrimage from Watsuji Tetsurō’s book Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960): Pilgrimages to the Ancient Temples in Nara, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2012.

  30. 30.

    http://www.cnet-ga.ne.jp/syozou/. Accessed 1 May 2017.

  31. 31.

    For example, the author of the article reports a tragic story: “As for Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, another resident was feeding 350 cows for food markets. After March 2011, the government ordered people like him to kill their cows. He refused. The area has been closed off, but he has been feeding more than 300 cows under economic and physical hardships for the purpose of having the cows tested for radiation effects at a medical facility in the future.”

  32. 32.

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/03/19/reader-mail/fukushimas-history-of-struggle/#.V0JwW_l97IU. Accessed 1 May 2017.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Japanese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

    Ching-yuen CHEUNG

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  1. Ching-yuen CHEUNG
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Thomas Taro LENNERFORS

  2. School of Commerce and Centre for Business Information Ethics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan

    Kiyoshi MURATA

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CHEUNG, Cy. (2019). Reading Tanaka Shōzō as an Ethical Person After Fukushima. In: LENNERFORS, T., MURATA, K. (eds) Tetsugaku Companion to Japanese Ethics and Technology. Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59027-1_12

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