The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 13 | Issue 7 | Number 3 | Feb 16, 2015

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Remembering Hiroshima and the Lucky Dragon inChim↑Pom’s Level 7 feat. “Myth of Tomorrow” 広島と第五福竜丸を思い浮かべて　Chim↑Pom（チム↑ポム）LEVEL7 feat.明日の神話

Alexander Brown

Abstract

In May 2011, just one month after the 3/11triple-disaster, the Chim↑Pom artist collectiveconducted an unauthorised installation of apanel depicting the crippled nuclear reactors atthe Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plantnext to Okamoto Tarō's large-scale mural Mythof Tomorrow in Shibuya railway station. In thispaper I read the installation as a commentaryon the history of nuclear power and anti-nuclear art in post-war Japan. This commentaryreconnects the historical issue of nuclearweapons with contemporary debates aboutnuclear power.

Keywords

Graphic Arts and Photography, Disasters,Atomic Energy/Nuclear Power, Atomic Bomband Nuclear War

In a large airy corridor of Tokyo's Shibuyarailway station hangs Myth of Tomorrow (Asuno shinwa), an enormous 5.5 metre by 30 metremural by the late Okamoto Tarō (1911–1996),one of twentieth-century Japan's best knownartists. At the centre of the mural is thedramatic motif of a burning skeleton whichrepresents Japan's first two encounters withthe terrible power of the atom at Hiroshimaand Nagasaki in 1945. In the bottom right handcorner of the mural is depicted the third: theDaigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon No 5), aJapanese tuna fishing trawler whose crewmembers were exposed to radioactive fallout

from the U.S. "Bravo" hydrogen bomb testconducted in 1954 at Bikini Atoll in theMarshall Islands. On 30 April 2011, nearly twomonths after the Great East Japan Earthquakeshook Japan and triggered a series ofexplosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclearpower plant, a small one metre by two metrepanel appeared in an empty space in thebottom right hand corner of the mural. Thepanel, which blended seamlessly with theoriginal mural, depicted this fourth and mostrecent major radioactive disaster in Japan'shistory. Black smoke r is ing from thesmouldering ruins of the reactors in the panelwas painted so as to resemble Okamoto's ownhaunting representation of the mushroomcloud, which rises from the skeleton at thecentre of his mural.

Level 7 feat. "Myth of Tomorrow", Chim↑Pom,2011.

The installation generated considerablediscussion on the social media platform Twitterand in the Japanese media.2 The "perpetrators"of the guerilla installation remained a mystery,however, until 18 May when the Chim↑Pomartists' collective of Ushiro Ryūta, Ellie,Hayashi Yasutaka, Okada Masataka, MizunoToshinori and Inaoka Motomu revealed thatthey were behind the installation.3 Formed in2005 by a circle around contemporary artistAida Makoto,4 Chim↑Pom had already

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established themselves as one of the mostoriginal and socially-conscious forces incontemporary Japanese art with a string ofgallery shows and international festivalappearances to their name.5 Although Shibuyapolice removed the panel on 2 May after beingalerted to its existence by a Twitter user, avideo recording, shown above in Figure 1,preserved the installation and was includedalong with the Fukushima panel under the titleLEVEL 7 feat. "Myth of Tomorrow"6 in thegroup's Real Times exhibition at the Mujin-toProduction gallery in Kōtō ward, Tokyo in May.

By cleverly incorporating the Fukushimadisaster alongside Okamoto's depiction of theatomic bomb, Chim↑Pom's work drew aconnection between the experiences ofHiroshima and Nagasaki and the nucleardisaster at Fukushima. In this essay I readChim↑Pom's LEVEL 7 in order to reflect on aquestion which has puzzled so many activistsand observers in the wake of Fukushima: how anation which experienced the horror of nuclearwar could embrace the peaceful use (heiwariyō) of nuclear power and become the world'sthird-largest producer of nuclear energy. Ittook a major propaganda campaign conductedthroughout the 1950s and 1960s to separatethe memory of the atomic bomb and the LuckyDragon from the idea of a "peaceful use" fornuclear power.7 By reconnecting the twoissues, LEVEL 7 helps us to visualise thestruggles and the competing "myths oftomorrow" which have shaped Japan'sencounter with the atom from 1945 to thepresent day.

I begin this essay by analysing Okamoto's Mythof Tomorrow and showing how the artist's ideason anthropology, nuclear war and art practiceinfluenced the production of the work.Okamoto produced Myth of Tomorrow whileworking as "theme producer" for a pavilion atthe Osaka World Fair of 1970. I read Okamoto'sdepiction of the atomic bomb in Myth ofTomorrow alongside his critique of the World

Fair's theme of "progress and harmony"(shimpo to chōwa). Chim↑Pom's intervention, Iargue, exposes the connection between thedream of a peaceful, nuclear-powered, high-growth economy and the reality of Japan'scontinued economic and military dependenceon the United States. By juxtaposing their ownwork with Okamoto's mural in "real-time",Chim↑Pom help us to recognise the connectionbetween Fukushima and Hiroshima and thehidden histories of nuclear power which haveunfolded under the American "nuclearumbrella".

Okamoto Tarō's Myth of Tomorrow

As an anti-war artist and a leading light inJapan's post-war avant-garde, Okamoto Tarō

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played an important part in the rebellious andanti-establishment currents within Japanesecontemporary art.8 After enrolling in the TokyoSchool of Fine Arts in 1929 with the intentionof becoming an artist, Okamoto studied for onlyhalf a year before leaving to accompany hisparents to Paris. He arrived there in January1930 and remained for a decade to pursue hisstudies of art and anthropology.9 In Paris,Okamoto studied anthropology with MarcelMauss (1872–1950) and became involved insurrealist circles.10 War framed both thebeginning and the end of Okamoto's sojourn inParis. It was his father, manga artist OkamotoIppei's (1886–1948), trip to cover the LondonNaval Conference of 193011 for the Asahinewspaper that provided the opportunity forTarō to travel with his family to Paris in 1929;and it was the outbreak of war in Europe thatforced Tarō to return to Japan in 1940. On hisreturn, Okamoto was drafted for militaryservice in China in 1942 where he served outthe remainder of the war. He later referred tohaving been "frozen" during this "most futilepart of my life". Only a few portraits of hissenior officers and sketches of soldiers remainfrom these years.12

Repatriated in June 1946, after having beeninterned in China for a year, Okamotoestablished a studio in Kaminoge in Tokyo'sSetagaya ward and began to produce socially-conscious art, including numerous worksreflecting his opposition to war and nuclearweapons.13 In 1954 the Japanese tuna fishingtrawler Lucky Dragon No 5 was exposed tofallout from the U.S. "Bravo" nuclear weaponstests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Thevessel's return to the port of Yaizu in Shizuokaprefecture with its 23-member crew allsuffering from radiation sickness sent shockwaves through Japan and brought the popularmovement against the hydrogen bomb onto thenational and international stage.14 Okamoto'sMoeru hito (Burning People), composed inresponse to the Lucky Dragon, was exhibited aspart of the Fifth World Conference Against

Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in 1959, one of aseries of anti-nuclear conferences organised inresponse to the Lucky Dragon incident. Thework appeared alongside that of otherprominent anti-nuclear artists such as MarukiT o s h i ( 1 9 1 2 – 2 0 0 0 ) a n d M a r u k i I r i(1901–1995).15Moeru hito, art curator ŌsugiHiroshi explains, was the first of Okamoto'smany atomic bomb-themed works and ispainted "with the most intense and audaciouscomposition". For Ōsugi, Moeru hito evokesPicasso's great anti-war mural Guernica, whichOkamoto himself regarded as the crowningachievement of modern art and which inspiredhim in the composition of Myth of Tomorrow.16

Moeru hito by Okamoto TarōMyth of Tomorrow by Okamoto Tarō

The red flash which occupies the centre ofMoeru hito reappears in Myth of Tomorrow asa potent representation of the destructivepower of the atomic bomb. In the lower righthand corner of the mural we find the LuckyDragon, caught up in a turgid wave of yellowthat contrasts with the red flash of thehydrogen bomb. Okamoto represents thetrawler with a face, body, arms and legs –

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evoking the terrible impact of the blast on theship's crew. This anthropomorphic figure isshown being blasted to one side by a large redstreak which has its origins to the left of thecentral skeleton and reaches out to dominatethe entire right half of the mural. It was in thisbottom right-hand corner of Okamoto's mural,below the representation of the Lucky Dragon,that Chim↑Pom installed their LEVEL 7 panel.This juxtaposition prompts us to consider theFukushima disaster in the context of Japan'smultiple experiences of radiological disasterand its vibrant traditions of anti-nuclearactivism.

While Okamoto explored the experience of warand its aftermath in his painting, in hisanthropological work he applied the ideas hehad developed in France to the study of theJapanese archipelago's own neglected artistictraditions. As he waged war on the artestablishment as part of the avant-garde,Okamoto tried to reclaim a neglected history ofJapanese aesthetics via the study of prehistoricand folk art. Art critic Sawaragi Noi points outthat in Okamoto's study of the pottery of theJōmon period (circa 12,000BCE – 300BCE),17

the artist saw Jōmon pottery not merely as thearchaeological relics we see today but as theartworks (geijutsu) of their own era. He tried tosmash Japanese art's orthodox aesthetic tropesof wabi, sabi and wa (harmony), which heregarded as counterfeit traditions, andcontinued his research by traveling throughoutthe archipelago to explore the "lost Japan". Hewas particularly fascinated by the artistic andfestival traditions of Okinawa18 and the Tōhokuregion of northeastern Japan. In the mid-twentieth-century, these regions were regardedas having little to offer in terms of art andculture but for Okamoto they were to play acentral role in his development of analternative art history of Japan. 1 9

Okamoto had a particularly strong interest inthe indigenous cultural traditions of theJapanese archipelago which preceded the

coming of Buddhist culture, and he saw theseearlier traditions preserved in the folkpractices of regions such as Okinawa andTōhoku. The essence of these traditions, heconcluded, is that they "have no form, and donot remain".20 His primary interest was not inartworks as artefacts but in the experienceprovoked by the encounter between a work andits observer. Okamoto wanted the memory ofthat experience to remain for a long time, evenif the artwork itself was lost, and hoped that atsome point the work might possess the powerto change that person's way of living. Thissense of something capable of creating atransformation explains why Okamoto thoughtof art as a kind of "sorcery".21

Okamoto's deep appreciation of the magic ofart as a means of provoking individual andsocial transformation, his experiences in Parisand his anti-war art are all reflected in thecomposition of what Okamoto Toshiko(1926–2005) regarded as Tarō's greatestmasterpiece: Myth of Tomorrow.22 The muralwas originally commissioned by Mexicanhotelier Manuel Suarez for a luxury hotel hewas building in Mexico City. Okamoto workedon the mural during numerous trips to MexicoCity between 1967 and 1969. Okamoto hadearlier been inspired by the folk art and festivaltraditions of the Japanese archipelago, and henow drew on the Mexican folk tradition of theDay of the Dead festival in the composition ofMyth of Tomorrow as well as Mexico'scontemporary mural painting culture. Duringhis visits to the region in the mid-1960s to filma telemovie he had been inspired by theskeleton motifs that could be found in thefestival traditions, in art and even in souvenirshops. These influences appeared in themural's central skeleton motif. A lover ofMexican culture, Okamoto even speculated inBi no Juryoku23 that the similarities betweenJōmon cultural relics and those from South andCentral America were evidence for theexistence of a pre-historic pan-Pacific culturalsphere.24

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While the mural Myth of Tomorrow wascompleted by 1969, the Mexican hotel forwhich Okamoto's mural was commissioned,originally scheduled to open in time for the1968 Mexico City Olympics, remainedincomplete. The mural was installed in thehotel lobby but the building was nevercompleted. Suarez himself encounteredfinancial difficulties before dying in 1987. Theincomplete hotel was sold to a developer andthe mural went miss ing. I t was onlyrediscovered in 2003, more than thirty yearslater, by Okamoto Tarō's life partner, OkamotoToshiko, in a construction company storageyard outs ide Mexico Ci ty . 2 5 Toshikospearheaded a campaign in Japan to raisefunds to purchase the mural and bring it backto Japan for restoration.26 It was finally hung inits current location in Shibuya station in 2008.27

Chim↑Pom: Making Art in Real Times

LEVEL 7 feat. "Myth of Tomorrow" byChim↑Pom. After removal from Shibuyastation.

After Chim↑Pom's LEVEL 7 feat. "Myth ofTomorrow" was removed from Shibuya stationby police it was returned to the artists whoexhibited it as part of their Real Times showalongside other works inspired by theearthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters. Theshow was well attended, attracting an average

of 500 people per day over six days.28 A pressrelease issued by the Mujin-to Productiongallery to advertise the exhibition explainedthat the exhibition would seek to explore the"post-3/11" era through its past, primarilythrough video works.29 The "Real Times" themewas described in terms of a "now à real-time"after 3/11 and a "real era/era of the real" whichwe refer to as "now". The theme addressed thetraces of the past which are manifest in theliving present through the recognition that"now has been created by the past". This wasan exhibition about the times in which we areliving right now, where the radiologicaldisaster at Fukushima and its continually-unfolding consequences have become a part ofour contemporary reality. The exhibition alsoputs this reality in its historical context. In theinstallation LEVEL 7 feat. "Myth of Tomorrow"Chim↑Pom had cleverly incorporatedOkamoto's tableau within their more recentwork. Their use of the word "feature" in thework's title situates the past depicted inOkamoto's work within the present moment.Today's Real Times are both new, modern timesbut they are also times which are shaped by theunresolved contradictions of the past. Notionsof "post-disaster", like that of the "post-war"which is ever-present in Japanese art andpolitical discourse, are not fixed periods oftime.30 By naming these periods of time we arenot recognising a pre-existing reality but ratherengaging in ongoing struggles over how todefine and delimit the past. This affects how weproduce the present. Chim↑Pom's actionsimply that the contested history of nucleartechnologies is very much a part of our owntimes "after Fukushima". By including theirpanel strategically next to Okamoto's ownreference to an event which contributed to thedevelopment of Japan's anti-nuclear movement,the Lucky Dragon incident, the Chim↑Pomgroup prompts viewers to remember that theirown artistic activism is part of a long history ofanti-nuclear struggle.

The titular work of the exhibition, Real Times,

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was a video work in which the group carriedout another legally dubious installation, thistime in the restricted zone around theFukushima nuclear power plant. In the videothe group are shown unfurling a white flag at alookout point within the power plant site. Onemember proceeds to spray a red circle on theflag – transforming it into the Japanese nationalflag – before painting three trapezoidal shapesaround the edge of the circle. It now becomesthe universal symbol for radioactivity, butpainted in Japan's national colours.31 The workthereby suggests a connection between themyth of safety (anzen shinwa) and themythology of the nation-state. Works such asthis adopted an activist stance towards thenuclear disaster and exposed the "hiddenreality" of nuclear disaster which lay behind themeek repetitions in the mainstream media ofofficial government sources which downplayedthe seriousness of the event.32

For commentators such as zainichi Koreanintellectual Suh Kyungsik, the imbrication ofthe events surrounding the Fukushima nucleardisaster with the unresolved conflicts of thepost-war means that after Fukushima we arenot turning "a new page" in history but ratherthat "the page which cannot be turned is onceagain exposed".33 Suh points to the rarely-acknowledged fact that Japan's nuclearreactors and the wastes (such as plutonium)which they produce are not simple the productof an industrial policy engineered to guaranteeJapan's economic prosperity. They are also ameans of maintaining nuclear weaponspotential and producing the fissile materialswhich could be used in nuclear weapons.34

Philosopher Karatani Kōjin has pointed out thatthe amendment of Japan's Atomic Energy BasicLaw (Genshiryoku Kihon Hō) in June 2012 toinclude "contribution to our national security"among the aims of nuclear power35 suggeststhat "the true motive for the restart [of thenuclear reactors which went offline afterFukushima] lies in 'nuclear weapons'".36

Chim↑Pom's juxtaposition of the smouldering

reactors at Fukushima and Okamoto's atomictableau suggests an understanding of thenuclear problem as inseparable from Japan'ssecurity relationship with the United States, arelationship originating in Japan's defeat in1945, its occupation by a U.S.-dominatedmilitary force and its location under the U.S."nuclear umbrella".

Chim↑Pom's work explores our "real times" byvisualising these hidden traces of the past.Writing about LEVEL 7, the group note that theexistence of a gap in the lower right-handcorner of Myth of Tomorrow, into which theirown PVC sheet was fixed, was itself an accidentof history. This gap, which gives theappearance that the bottom portion of the twoend panels of the mural are missing, actuallyexists because the mural was designed to fitinto a particular space in the lobby of thenever-completed Hotel de Mexico. Though leftempty accidentally this space provided, thegroup write, a "prophetic blank for the 21stcentury". They completed this "gap" in themural with a work that depicted the realityfaced by people in Japan, and indeed all overthe world, who are living in in the aftermath ofFukushima. 3 7 LEVEL 7 feat. "Myth ofTomorrow" incorporates the larger work, the"before", into our Real Times. Chim↑Pomremind us that even though their panel hasbeen removed from the wall in the corridors ofShibuya's sprawling central station, we can stillperceive its presence through our imagination.The group write that "to see the work [LEVEL7] through its absence must require ourimagination instead of eyes, just as to conceivehistory or radiation".38 I had to practice this actof "seeing with the imagination" myself as Ireturned again and again to Shibuya station togaze upon the mural while developing the ideasin this article. It is precisely this power of"seeing through absence" that we mustcultivate in order to recognise the invisibletraces of radiation left by the bombing ofHiroshima, the Bravo tests which contaminatedthe Marshall Islands and the Lucky Dragon,

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and the reactor explosions at Fukushima.

Myths of Tomorrow: Progressivism,Science and the Osaka 1970 World Fair

Chim↑Pom's intervention alongside Myth ofTomorrow occurred exactly one hundred yearsafter Okamoto was born.3 9 A number ofcommemorative events were organised for thecentenary of the artist's birth such as theexhibition "Okamoto Tarō –The 100thAnniversary of His Birth" at The NationalMuseum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Art criticSawaragi Noi writes of his discomfortregarding this exhibition, the first majorexhibition of Okamoto's work in this "national",state-sanctioned art gallery. He notes thatOkamoto held the official art world in disdain.Does not the holding of such an exhibition at aprestigious state-sponsored art gallerytherefore mean, Sawaragi asks, that Okamotohas now been re-incorporated into this veryworld? Nevertheless, as Sawaragi goes on toexplore, the artist had his own contradictoryrelationship with institutions of state powerduring his lifetime.40

Okamoto completed Myth of Tomorrow duringone of the busiest and most controversialperiods of his life when he was working astheme producer for the Osaka World Fair.41 TheWorld Fair split the avant-garde with manyleading artists taking part while othersaffiliated with the anti-expo group (hanpaku)criticised the state-sponsored spectacle.42

Okamoto argued that he could best articulate acritique of the Expo slogan "the progress andharmony of mankind" (jinrui no shimpo tochōwa) from within the World Fair. His Towerof the Sun, an enormous sculpture constructedin the centre of the theme pavilion he wasresponsible for producing, was nearly 70metres tall. The structure was so tall that itrequired a large hole to be cut in the centre ofthe roof to accommodate it. In this wayOkamoto tried to disrupt the "progressive"logic of the pavilion which he saw represented

in the soaring roof of the pavilion. His Tower ofthe Sun proposed an alternative vision of "life"as the primitive energy of humanity which isneither progressive nor harmonious. 43

Tower of the Sun by Okamoto Tarō.

While Okamoto may have felt he could bestarticulate his own critique of technologicalprogressivism from within the expo, thetechnological and artistic spectacle of theWorld Fair marked, Chim↑Pom point out, thesymbolic beginning of the "Nuclear Power Era"(genpatsu gannen). The expo was powered, togreat fanfare, using nuclear power, known atthe time as the "energy of dreams",44 sourcedfrom Japan's first two commercial light waterreactors which had recently been completed atMihama and Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture.45 TheFair took place in 1970, the year the U.S.–Japansecurity treaty (Anpo) was to be renewed – tenyears after the first Anpo struggle of 1960. In1960, millions had taken part in protestsagainst the ratification of the treaty by theJapanese Diet. In 1970, however, only small,mostly student protests took place. The issue ofthe security treaty had faded as the spectacularhigh economic growth of the 1960s liftedmillions out of poverty and created a mass-

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consumer society. Nevertheless, while theSecurity Treaty may have faded from the publiceye, Yoshimi Shun'ya points out that the growthof heavy industry and the development ofnuclear power generation technologies in Japanwere inseparable from a Cold War regimecharacterised by military and economicdependence on the United States. It was noaccident that the nuclear energy whichpowered the World Fair's celebration of theachievements of the high growth economy wassourced from reactors constructed by jointconsortia between Japanese electric powercompanies and U.S. manufacturers such asGeneral Electric and Westinghouse.46

Sawaragi Noi suggests that we need toconsider Myth of Tomorrow alongsideOkamoto's Tower of the Sun in order tounderstand the art ist 's own "myth oftomorrow". The mural contrasts the ability ofatomic energy to "secure" the future with theoriginal life-energy of humanity, whichOkamoto saw preserved in ritual practices suchas those he had observed in Okinawa andTōhoku. While for Okamoto the technologicalthreat was not nuclear power but nuclear war,Sawaragi argues that from today's perspectivewe can re-read the fundamental oppositionbetween humanity and technology as anopposition between human life energy andnuclear power.47 If humanity has a future,Okamoto proposed, it is not to be found in blindfaith in the development of technology but inthe original life-energy which is revealed inmyth.48 The "prosperous post-war" (yutaka nasengo) which was celebrated at the OsakaWorld Fair depended on this electricity topower both heavy industry and the expandingconsumerist lifestyle in Japan's cities. We cannot, Yoshimi observes, separate "atoms forpeace" from the dream of electric-poweredeconomic growth. In the face of the broad-based suppor t for a "peace fu l " and"prosperous" post-war lifestyle, the structuralinequities of the U.S.–Japan alliance, foundedon the destruction of Hiroshima, disappeared

from view behind the "dream" of nuclearenergy.49

Chim↑Pom's LEVEL 7 reminds us that beforethe "peaceful use" of nuclear fission for fuellingthe post-war dream of economic progress,Japan had already experienced the dreadfulpower of the atom at the hands of the U.S.military. The artists' intervention besideOkamoto's mural enables us to re-read themural not only as an historical relic of post-warart with its concern with Hiroshima, Nagasakiand the Lucky Dragon but as a contemporarywork which is still relevant to the "post-3/11"world. As Sawaragi Noi observes, Chim↑Pom'sintervention has rescued the celebrations of thecentenary of Okamoto Tarō's birth in 2011 frombecoming a simplistic "recollection andmythologising" of Okamoto Tarō. Their workhas made his challenge a part of our times.50

Conclusion

Chim↑Pom's intervention in the midst of whatis both literally and figuratively a pedestrianspace within a commuter corridor of a majorrailway station suggests that it is in theeveryday that we make Real Times. Commuterscould walk past the installation, as many did,without even noticing it. Or, as one person didon 2 May 2011, they could not i fy theauthorities and have this uncomfortable visualtrace of the Fukushima nuclear disasterremoved, affirming Okamoto Tarō's canonicalstatus and reducing the threat that his workand his memory might still pose to the statusquo. The memory of LEVEL 7, however, like theradioactive traces it depicts, will be with usforever. Chim↑Pom invite us not to look awayfrom the discomfort of history. Theirintervention in the lower-right hand corner ofMyth of Tomorrow, in a gap which was left byan accident of history, invites us to imagine ourown ability to intervene in the "blank spaces"left by history. They invite a historicaltruthfulness51 but also what amounts to arevolutionary praxis whereby we might

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construct different futures which areaccountable to the past but are no longerbound to repeat it.

Chim↑Pom's guerrilla installation skilfullyutilised this large, prominently-displayed andwell-known mural by a famous avant-gardeartist to place the events of March 2011 into alarger historical context, thereby connectingnuclear power generation with its origins innuclear war. By installing their own panelalongside a piece of public art, the artistsinvited viewers to reflect on the events atFukushima in the context of their collectivememories of nuclear devastation and nuclear-fuelled economic growth which have definedpost-war Japan. LEVEL 7 connects the mostrecent tragedy of the atomic age with thebombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Its suggestivepositioning below the Lucky Dragon invitescontemporary activists to continue in thetradition of anti-nuclear struggle which hasbeen such an important part of Japan's post-war experience.

As Japanese society confronts its fourth majorradiological incident the struggle over whatkind of modernity Japan should pursue hasprompted artists such as Chim↑Pom to re-examine Okamoto's "myth of tomorrow" – analternative to that proposed by nuclear war andhigh-tech economic growth. By cleverly"featuring" Okamoto's original mural withintheir representation of the Fukushima Daiichinuclear disaster Chim↑Pom enable us torecognise the contested development ofnuclear power and its imbrication in theforgetting of nuclear technology's deadlyorigins. Throughout the post-war period,struggles over environmental pollution andnuclear power have called attention to thecontradictions of capitalist modernity and havecontributed to the development of alternative"myths of tomorrow". Chim↑Pom's worksuggests that the struggle for a differenttomorrow can only take place in the midst ofthese unresolved contradictions of the past.

Okamoto believed that even terrible tragediessuch as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki could be overcome by a humanitywhich refused to give in to despair. 5 2

Chim↑Pom's work likewise demands that werespond to Fukushima not with despair but byrecognising the possibilities which emergefrom tragedy. The disaster has brought about arejuvenation of Japanese civil society andpopular protest. This points to just the kind of"possibility" which Chim↑Pom see as theproduct of the imagination, something art isuniquely situated to provoke and reflect.Chim↑Pom's installation alongside OkamotoTarō's mural produces a temporality whichresponds to but is not bound by the past. Itspurs the power of the imagination to producenew futures. This seems closest to the artists'own intentions, when they write,

we believe imagination is the very possibilityfor ground zero,

and the most fundamental power to create thefuture.

And we believe art exists as such.53

Biography

Alexander Brown is a doctoral student in theSchool of Humanities and Social Inquiry at theUniversity of Wollongong. His dissertationconcerns the relationship between structuralchange in the Japanese employment market inthe new millennium and the cultural politics ofthe anti-nuclear movement in Tokyo. BetweenOctober 2011 and March 2013 he was aresearch student at Hitotsubashi University inTokyo. He is the author of 'A Society in WhichPeople Demonstrate: Karatani Kōjin and thePolitics of the Anti-nuclear Movment'(http://japaninstitute.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/u6/23_Alexander_Brown-JSAA2013.pdf),Proceedings of the 18th Conference of the JapanStudies Association of Australia, 10 February2014.

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1 "LEVEL 7 feat . Myth of Tomorrow "(http://youtu.be/bKZBhbzLqv4), 2011.Retrieved 20 February 2014.

2 "Okamoto Tarō san no Hekiga ni Itazura"[Okamoto Tarō's Mural Vandalised], AsahiShimbun, Evening edition, 2 May 2011, p.10;Chūnichi supōtsu, 2 May 2011.

3 Nishioka Kazumasa, "Okamoto Tarō Hekiga niGenpatsu no e Tsuketashi, Sawagase Shūdan,Jitsu wa Shitataka" [Agitators Who Added aPainting of a Nuclear Power Plant to OkamotoTarō's Mural are Really Determined], AsahiShimbun, Morning edition, 25 May 2011, p. 25;Chim↑Pom, Geijutsu Jikkō Han Art Perpetrators], Tokyo,

Asahi Shuppansha, 2012, p. 10.

4 Aida has also tackled political themes, such asin his War Picture Returns series.

5 Edan Corkill , "Shock tactics return"(http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/08/14/arts/shock-tactics-return/#.UT6jmxmoXS4),Japan Times. Retrieved 12 March 2013;Christopher Y. Lew, "Foreword" in Super Rat,Tokyo, PARCO, 2012, pp. 12–15 (p. 15); "Thet r a s h y a r t o f A s i a n d i p l o m a c y "(http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/06/05 / a r t s / t h e - t r a s h y - a r t - o f - a s i a n -diplomacy/#.UT6ihRmoXS4), Japan Times.Retrieved 12 March 2013.

6 The Level 7 in the title refers to the levelassigned to the Fukushima nuclear disaster onthe International Nuclear Event Scale, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency's measureof the severity of nuclear accidents. TheJapanese government raised their assessmentof the severity of the disaster from an initialrating of 5 (equivalent to the Three Mile Islandaccident of 1979) to 7 (the same level given tothe Chernobyl disaster of 1986) after thecountry's nuclear safety commission revealedthat the amount of radioactive materialsreleased from the damaged reactors hadreached 10,000 terabecquerels per hour forseveral hours after the March accident.

7 Yoshimi Shun'ya, Yume no Genshiryoku[Atoms for Dream], Tokyo, Chikuma Shobō,2014, p. 23–26.

8 Carl Cassegård, "Japan's Lost Decade and itsTwo Recoveries: On Sawaragi Noi, JapaneseNeo-pop and Anti-war Activism" in NinaCornyetz and J. Keith Vincent (eds.) Perversionand Modern Japan: Psychoanalysis, Literature,Culture, Routledge, 2009, pp. 48–52.

9 Sawaragi Noi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu: Kitaru bekiOkamoto Tarō e Tarō and Explosion: To an Okamoto Tarō Yet to Come],

Tokyo, Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 2012, p. 44.

10 Yuhara Kimihiro (ed), Okamoto Tarō ShinSeiki A New Century of Okamoto Tarō], Bessatsu Taiyō: Nihon No Kokoro [Taiyō

Supplement: The Soul of Japan], no. 179, Tokyo, Heibonsha, 2011, p. 22.

11 The London Naval Conference of 1930 wasthe third in a series of five meetings todetermine limitations on the naval capacity ofthe world's largest naval powers in the wake ofthe First World War. Japan participated in theconferences alongside Great Britain, the UnitedStates, Japan, France and Italy.

12 Yuhara, Okamoto Tarō, p. 36.

13 Ōsugi Hiroshi, "'Asu no Shinwa' Kansei niitaru Hansen, Hankaku no Messēji [Anti-warand Anti-nuclear Messages in the Lead up toMyth of Tomorrow]' in Asu no shinwa: OkamotoTarō no Messēji, 2006, p. 80.

14 Aya Homei, "The contentious death of MrKuboyama: science as politics in the 1954Lucky Dragon incident", Japan Forum, vol. 25,no. 2, 2013, p. 213. Ann Sherif has pointed outthat although the Lucky Dragon incident iswidely credited with sparking an anti-atomicbomb movement in Japan such a movement didalready exist. Prior to the Lucky Dragonincident, however, the movement was primarilyled by supporters of the Japan CommunistParty, Japan Socialist Party and the labourunions. Following the incident, however, theinvolvement of large numbers of non-aligned

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citizens, particularly the famous homemakersof Suginami ward in Tokyo who led the "Banthe Bomb" petition movement, made themovement more pa la tab le to mediarepresentation in the deeply polarisedenvironment of the Cold War. See Ann Sherif,"Thermonuclear weapons and tuna: testing,protest and knowledge in Japan", in Jadwiga E.Pieper Mooney and Fabio Lanza (eds.),Decentering Cold War History, Routledge,Oxon, 2013, pp. 15–30.

15 Ōsugi, "'Asu no Shinwa'", p. 80.

16 Okamoto Tarō, Jujutsu Tanjō The Birth of Sorcery], Tokyo,

Misuzu Shobō, 1998, p. 32.

17 Okamoto Tarō, Nihon no Dentō [Japan'sTraditions], Tokyo, Misuzu Shobō, 1999.

1 8 Okamoto Tarō, Okinawa Bunka Ron:Wasurerareta Nihon On Okinawan Culture: The Forgotten Japan],

Tokyo, Chūo Kōronsha, 1996.

19 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 20.

20 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, pp. 31–32.

21 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 32.

22 Asu no Shinwa Saisei Purojekuto (ed.), Asuno Shinwa: Okamoto Tarō no Messēji, p. 4.

23 Okamoto Tarō, Bi no Juryoku The Magical Power of Art],

Tokyo, Shinchōsha, 2004.

24 Yamashita Yūji, 'Okamoto Tarō ga "Asu noshinwa" ni Kometa Omoi' [The Feelings inOkamoto Tarō's Myth of Tomorrow], in Asu noShinwa: Okamoto Tarō no Messēji, 2006, pp.69–70.

25 Okamoto Toshiko, "Asu no Shinwa Hakken",p. 4

26 The restoration process is chronicled inYoshimura Emiiryū, Okamoto Tarō "Asu noShinwa" shūfuku 960 nichi kan no kiroku A Record

of 960 Days Restoring Okamoto Tarō's "Myth of Tomorrow", Tokyo, Puraimu, 2006.

27 Coco Masters, "A Lost Masterpiece, NowF o u n d i n T o k y o ' s M e t r o "(http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859986,00.html), Time, 18 November2011. Retrieved 18 July 2014.

28 Edan Corkill, "Chim↑Pom and the Art ofS o c i a l E n g a g e m e n t "(http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2011/09/29/culture/chimpom-and-the-art-of-social-engagement/#.UT6fzhmoXS4), Japan TimesOnline, 29 September 2011. Retreived 12March 2013.

2 9 " M u j i n - t o P r o d u c t i o n "(http://www.mujin-to.com/press/chimpom_2011.htm). Retrieved 22 August 2013.

30 For an exploration of the politics of theseemingly unending "post-war" see Harry D.Harootunian, "Japan's Long Postwar: The Trickof Memory and the Ruse of History", SouthAtlantic Quarterly, vol. 99, no. 4, pp. 715–739.

31 Chim↑Pom, SUPER RAT, Tokyo, ParukoEntateinmento Jigyōbu, 2012, pp. 24–26.

32 Atsuro Morita, Anders Blok and ShuheiKimura, "Environmental Infrastructures ofEmergency: The Formation of a Civic RadiationMonitoring Map during the FukushimaDisaster", in Richard Hindmarsh (ed.), NuclearDisaster at Fukushima Daiichi: Social, Politicaland Environmental Issues, London, Routledge,2013, p. 81–84. See also David McNeill, "Truthto Power: Japanese Media, International Mediaa n d 3 . 1 1 R e p o r t a g e "(http://www.japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3912), The Asia-Pacific Journal, vol. 11, iss. 10, no.3, 11 March 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.

33 Suh Kyungsik, "'Igo' ni arawareru 'izen' [The"Before" That Appears in the "After"]", in HihyōKenkyū Critical Inquiry], vol. 1, 2012, p. 6. This and all subsequent translations

are my own unless otherwise noted.

34 Suh, "'Igo' ni arawareru 'izen'", pp. 6–7.

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35 "Genshiryoku Kiseiihō, Mokuteki ni, "AnzenHoshō" Genshiryoku Kihonhō ni mo Tsuika['National Security' Added to the Objectives ofthe Nuclear Regulation Authority Law, SameChange Made to the Atomic Energy Basic Law],Asahi Shimbun, 21 June 2012.

3 6 ' P r e s s R e l e a s e ( E n g l i s h ) '(http://nodayamerodemo.tumblr.com/post/26108131075/press-release-english). Retrieved 9February 2014.

37 Chim↑Pom, SUPER RAT, p. 31.

38 Chim↑Pom, SUPER RAT, p. 31. Translation inoriginal.

39 Chim↑Pom, Geijutsu jikkōhan, p. 12.

40 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 12–13.

41 Okamoto Toshiko, "'Asu no Shinwa' Hakken[The Discovery of Myth of Tomorrow]" in Asuno Shinwa Saisei Purojekuto (ed.) Asu noShinwa: Okamoto Tarō no Messēji The Myth of Tomorrow:

Okamoto Tarō's Message], Tokyo, Seishun Shuppansha, 2006, p. 4.

42 Cassegård, "Japan's Lost Decade and its TwoRecoveries", 48.

43 Cassegård, "Japan's Lost Decade and its TwoRecoveries", 48–51.

44 Chim↑Pom, Geijutsu Jikkō Han, p. 11;Yoshimi, Yume no Genshiryoku.

45 The Japan Atomic Power Company TōkaiDaiichi nuclear reactor, which was based on aBritish Calder Hall type reactor, had beencompleted four years earlier at Tōkai-mura inIbaraki prefecture but the technology wasinefficient and expensive and all new reactorsbuilt during the 1970s were of the Americanlight water type.

46 Yoshimi, Yume no Genshiryoku, pp. 14–15.

47 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 300.48 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 299.

49 Yoshimi, Yume no Genshiryoku, pp. 39–42.

50 Sawaragi, Tarō to Bakuhatsu, p. 301.

51 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, The Past Within Us:Media, Memory, History, New York, Verso,2004, pp. 229–244.

52 Okamoto Toshiko, "'Asu no Shinwa' Hakken",p. 10.

53 Chim↑Pom, SUPER RAT, p. 31. Translation inoriginal.