ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

Mitsuharu Inoue’s nuclear power novels, “Saikai Nuclear Power Plant”(1986) and “Transport”(1988), were reexamined after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. First of all, “Saikai” reveals the dangers of nuclear power plants and the reality of cartels without filtering, triggered by an arson murder incident that occurred in the area around the nuclear power plant. The desires of the residents living in latent anxiety and fear become intertwined, resulting in conflict. “Transport” focuses on the cracks in the area around a nuclear power plant that descend into panic when a trailer transporting nuclear waste crashes, releasing radiation. In the midst of the horror of radiation exposure, people face a hellish reality. In both novels, the question of whether the victims of radiation from the atomic bomb and the nuclear power plant, that is, the truth about the A-bomb survivor and radiation exposed person, occupies a large portion of the narrative. In “Saikai”, the question of whether or not one was directly exposed to the atomic bombs of Hiroshima/Nagasaki becomes the seed of conflict and anxiety, and in “Transport”, the question of whether or not one was exposed to radiation from nuclear waste becomes the seed of conflict and anxiety. The identity of the victims is being questioned. In the end, in “Saikai”, fake victims claim to be victims of atomic bombing, and in “Transport”, vulnerable people become victims of radiation exposure themselves by admitting that they are victims of radiation exposure. The former chooses to ‘become’ a victim of atomic bombing out of empathy for the victims, while the latter, unable to bear the anxiety of becoming a victim, choose to become a victim of radiation exposure. In this way, the nuclear power novels “Saikai” and “Transport” reveal that the claim that nuclear power plants are a peaceful use of nuclear energy is nothing more than an illusion, thereby reminding us that nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants are identical in their lethality and irreversibility.

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