At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to hit Japan rocked the Pacific coast of northern Japan, triggering huge tsunami waves. As of a year ago, the Japanese National Police agency confirmed the total death toll: 15,894 deaths, in addition to over 6,000 injured and over 2,500 people missing across twenty prefectures. In addition to the huge infrastructural damages and the massive loss of life caused by the earthquake and tsunami, the damage wrought on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex produced arguably more severe and long-lasting devastation. Tokyo Electric Power company (or TEPCO), the electric utility managing the Fukushima nuclear power plants, has been harshly criticized for obfuscating the extent of the damage to the power plants, particularly the fact that the tsunami triggered three nuclear meltdowns and the release of radioactive material—the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Residents within a 12-mile radius of the plants were evacuated, and all told, over 229,000 people were either temporarily or permanently relocated because of the triple disaster. In a situation where massive amounts of radioactive materials including coolant water have leaked or been intentionally released, the challenges of decontamination are overwhelming—as are the present and future health impacts of the disaster, both because of radiation and because of the tolls taken on those who have lost livelihoods, kin, and community through forced evacuation.
The ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Boulder was honored to host Dr. Noriko Manabe on March 4, 2016, a mere week before the five-year anniversary of the triple disaster in Northern Japan. Manabe presented an engaging paper entitled “Cyberspace, music, and participation in the Japanese antinuclear movement,” which provided an important lens on political engagement in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. Manabe focused on the ways that the Internet offers opportunities to destabilize the “spiral of silence”— the difficulty of discussing issues like nuclear power in Japan — through the use of antinuclear music videos, some of which have become “anthems” to the antinuclear movement. Manabe explored the semiotic techniques that musicians used; for example, they made use of well-known tunes or phrases, the familiarity of which was juxtaposed against their own (antinuclear) message, and made liberal use of word play. Circulation online allowed protestors to learn antinuclear “anthems” in advance of gatherings, which were then sung in unison during protests. Despite the liberatory potential of internet circulation, the anonymity of the internet also allowed the creation of “trolls” who undermined the messages of the antinuclear movement. Overall, however, the internet became a repository and medium for the dispersal of information about the nuclear disaster —characterized by affective engagement, particularly humor — and facilitated political participation.
This paper is part of Manabe’s broader research trajectory, which explores music, politics, and social movements; as well as language and meaning at the intersection of technology and the music industry. Manabe is an Associate Professor of Music Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, and is also a Research Associate in the Department of Music at SOAS in London. Her work focuses mainly on popular music in Japan and Latin America, and she has conducted archival research and fieldwork in Japan, Cuba, Spain, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, and Indonesia. Her work as an ethnomusicologist and music theorist is an excellent example of interdisciplinary research, pairing an acute ethnographic sensibility with musical analysis.