Miracle boats and other wonders: Locating affect in the narratives of recovery and removal of Japanese post-disaster debris. (February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martini, Annaclaudia; Gasparri, Duccio
• Is Part Of: Emotion, space and society. Volume 38(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-02
• Subjects: Heritage -- Affect -- Japan -- Memory -- Media; Emotions -- Periodicals; Spatial behavior -- Periodicals; Space perception -- Periodicals; 152.4
• DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100765
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1755-4586

Abstract

Abstract: This paper investigates how affective space is located and constructed in post-disaster places. In elaborating this concept, we observe the media narratives developed around the debris created by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan. The tsunami waves washed away over 20 million tons of debris, some of which was retrieved in foreign countries and brought back to Japan to be memorialized. We contend that the media narratives on the journey back home of these debris items represents a valuable example to assess how affect emerges and is localized in space. We do so by drawing on geographical theories of space and affect, as we analyse how media narratives follow three broadly defined movements: (i) the displacement of the object, its disappearance from home on March 11, 2011; (ii) the discovery of the object years after, on the other side of the Pacific; (iii) the return home for the purpose of memorialization. Highlights: Media narratives on post-disaster Japanese debris show how affect is localized in space. Affective media narratives on debris follow specific steps. The steps are: displacement, discovery, return. Media privilege an affective register and mediate people's experience of disaster.