Tom Gill
Professor of social anthropology at the Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama campus. After many years studying day labourers and homeless men, I have shifted my main focus to the Fukushima nuclear disaster since 2011. I have a concern that not enough anthropologists are doing fieldwork on this important topic.
Supervisors: Johnny Parry and Maurice Bloch
Supervisors: Johnny Parry and Maurice Bloch
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Papers by Tom Gill
hamlet of population 250 within the agricultural village of Iitate. At the time of writing, the entire village
remains evacuated due to high levels of radiation from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. In 2011 the
very concept of an outsider conducting research anywhere in the disaster zone was open to criticism. Some
argued that it was too early to tackle this sensitive topic; that it was distasteful to see anthropologists getting
excited about the suffering of the victims; and that having pesky researchers asking a lot of intrusive
questions would just make things worse for the victims. This paper offers a response to those criticisms, by
describing the author’s fieldwork and outlining some of the insights into the Fukushima nuclear disaster that
can only be gained through extended fieldwork, starting early. These include an awareness of differing levels
of affiliation to the village and its sub-division the hamlet, and of the development of an improvised substitute
community in the temporary housing complexes.
http://www.ajj-online.net/TheMasteroftheHamako.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z5hrl
hamlet of population 250 within the agricultural village of Iitate. At the time of writing, the entire village
remains evacuated due to high levels of radiation from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. In 2011 the
very concept of an outsider conducting research anywhere in the disaster zone was open to criticism. Some
argued that it was too early to tackle this sensitive topic; that it was distasteful to see anthropologists getting
excited about the suffering of the victims; and that having pesky researchers asking a lot of intrusive
questions would just make things worse for the victims. This paper offers a response to those criticisms, by
describing the author’s fieldwork and outlining some of the insights into the Fukushima nuclear disaster that
can only be gained through extended fieldwork, starting early. These include an awareness of differing levels
of affiliation to the village and its sub-division the hamlet, and of the development of an improvised substitute
community in the temporary housing complexes.
http://www.ajj-online.net/TheMasteroftheHamako.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z5hrl
The book also portrays Kimitsu’s living environment, a Yokohama slum district called Kotobuki. Kotobuki is a ‘doya-gai’—a slum inhabited mainly by men, somewhat similar to the skid row districts that used to be common in American cities. Traditionally these men have earned a basic living by working as day laborers, but the decline in employment opportunities has forced many of them into welfare dependence or homelessness. Kimitsu’s life and thought are framed by an account of the changing way of life in Kotobuki, a place that has gradually been transformed from a casual laboring market to a large, shambolical welfare center. In Kotobuki the national Japanese issues of an aging workforce and economic decline set in much earlier than elsewhere, leading to a dramatic illustration of the challenges facing the Japanese welfare state.