This thesis focuses on editorials from the Asahi Newspaper and the Yomiuri Newspaper in the half year following an accident at a nuclear power plant to identify concerns related to the topic of...Show moreThis thesis focuses on editorials from the Asahi Newspaper and the Yomiuri Newspaper in the half year following an accident at a nuclear power plant to identify concerns related to the topic of nuclear energy usage after such an accident. The specific accidents used for this analysis are the Chernobyl accident, the Monju accident at Tsuruga, the Tokaimura accident and the Mihama accident. What we found during the research is that concerns about nuclear energy used to be associated with atomic warfare and the ‘peaceful usages’ of nuclear technology, where more recently this focus has shifted to concerns about communication, safety, security and environmental issues.Show less
The research underlying this thesis concentrates on a critical evaluation of the academic as well as biopolitical discourses that developed around the 1986 nuclear disaster of Chernobyl. It...Show moreThe research underlying this thesis concentrates on a critical evaluation of the academic as well as biopolitical discourses that developed around the 1986 nuclear disaster of Chernobyl. It presents an analysis of the paradoxical case of the ‘samosely’, the ‘self-settlers’ that re-settled themselves back into the highly contaminated exclusion zone illegally after the incident. The analysis of the studied case and the conclusions of this research are based on a theoretical framework of philosophical and psychological literature around the notions of identity and trauma, with a specific focus on the dimension of temporality. Perceived from our perspective as paradoxical and irrational, the study of the reasons underlying the behaviour of the ‘samosely’ aims to generate a new and multifaceted understanding of trauma. Furthermore, this thesis advocates for a complexification of the notion of survivor identity that ought to be disconnected from the misuses through political agendas and biopolitical interests.Show less
