ABSTRACT
The Fukushima nuclear disaster triggered a long and widespread evacuation, which secondarily caused the discrimination and bullying of evacuees. In this chapter, I consider this mechanism by invoking a discussion of environmental pollution and disaster. I also discuss how evacuees deal with this situation, based on fieldwork conducted in Saitama Prefecture. The process of evacuation and the problem of reconstruction policies forcibly divided and changed the many social relationships of evacuees. Moreover, the conflict and mutual distrust regarding radioactivity and the problems regarding compensation accelerated the stigmatized image of evacuees. In this way, the harm done to evacuees was heavily amplified through social relationships, driving evacuees into the position of “social minorities.” They encounter “majority” people under the name of “evacuees from Fukushima,” which possibly furthered discrimination against them. Meanwhile, my fieldwork reveals how evacuees deal with their situation. Sometimes they hide their Fukushima identities in their daily lives to avoid discrimination. However, they are also constructing new social relationships free from discrimination with local residents through self-help evacuee ingroups and living alongside outgroups. These examples suggest that mutual understanding in local communities creates new social relationships between people, not only with the “evacuees” being stigmatized as radioactive and the recipients of compensation.
