Abstract

After Unit 1 explodes, a massive plume of white smoke laden with radioactive cesium crawls across the ground like a giant elephant.

Watching the unfolding nuclear disaster on television, Yusuke Kijima becomes convinced that everything is about to change. Yet what awaits him is a life in which nothing seems to change at all, except for a growing sense of frustration as decontamination workers and evacuees from the nuclear exclusion zone begin settling in his town.
Six years later, persuaded by a friend, Yusuke decides to become a decontamination worker himself. There, he witnesses the enormous sums of money flowing through the industry, and before long he finds himself drawn into its world.

The novel follows ordinary people whose lives have been transformed by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear disaster: decontamination workers, displaced residents, and the local communities that receive them. Through Yusuke’s eyes, it vividly portrays the complex emotions and tensions that exist among them. Vast compensation payments and lucrative government-funded businesses surrounding the disaster shape their lives, while money fuels resentment, hatred, and tragedy.
Then, triggered by a single incident, the story begins to move in a direction no one could have imagined.

Winner of the First Oyabu Haruhiko Newcomer Award, selected by unanimous decision of the judging panel.

Author’s Information

Born in Kagawa Prefecture in 1956. After working as a decontamination worker, the author won the First Oyabu Haruhiko Newcomer Award with this title.