 Description:
Radioactive contamination can be caused not only through “external radiation” but also through “internal radiation”; that is, when humans inhale radioactive particles or ingest contaminated foods, some of those radioactive particles are to remain inside human bodies and can irradiate them from inside. However, “internal radiation” has been grossly underestimated or largely ignored in assessing the damage caused by radioactive contamination; it has been the case not only in the arguments propounded to promote nuclear power but also in the general understanding about the damage caused by nuclear weapons and DU (Depleted Uranium) weapons as well. Thus, this lecture intends to bring into focus the risk of “internal radiation” as the most critical “wedge issue” lying at the very core of the whole nuclear system of our times.
 Objective:
The lecture will shed light on the risk of internal radiation, as the “wedge issue” related not only to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also to the DU controversy and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in order to invite students to reconsider our nuclear-dependent civilization from a new perspective.
 Recommended Readings:
Kazashi, Nobuo, DU (Depleted Uranium) Problem as the Nuclear Shadow: Iraq War as Seen from
Hiroshima, Hiroshima and Peace, edited by Carol Rinnert, Omar Frouk, Yasuhiro Inoue,
Hiroshima: Keisuisha, July 2010, pp. 230-244.
Tashiro, Akira, Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of the Depleted Uranium. Several Chapters. (Some other relevant articles and visual works may
be used.
J. Catalinotto and S. Flounders, eds., Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonor, International Action Center, first edition in 1997: second revised edition in 1999
Name:KAZASHI Nobuo
Present Post and Title: Professor, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University
Final Education: Ph. D. in philosophy, Yale University
Specialized Field: Contemporary Philosophy, Modern Japanese Thought, and Peace Studies
Recent Publications:
*1) The Passion for Philosophy in a Post-Hiroshima Age: Rethinking Nishida’s
Philosophy of History, Frontiers of Japanese Philosoph, vol. 6, Confluences and Cross-Currents,
ed.by R. Bouso and J. Heisig, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture,
Nov. 2009, pp. 123-134.
*co-ed., A World without Uranium Weapons: The ICBUW Challenge, Godo-shuppan, 2008 [in Japanese: an award from the Peace Cooperative
Journalist Foundation]
*The Times of War and Pragmatism: Hegemony over Attention, in Risen, No. 75, Jissensha, 2003 [in Japanese]
* 21st Century of Philosophy: A First Step from Hiroshima. Hiroshima: Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, 2000. [in Japanese].
*"Bodily Logos: James, Merleau-Ponty, and Nishida," in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Interiority and Exteriority, Psychic Life and the
World. 2000, pp.121-134.
*ed., Nishida’s Works on the Philosophy of History, with a commentary, Toheisha, 1998 (in Japanese)
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| Living in Hiroshima for about 17 years, I have been engaged in various peace activities, but my commitment became intense after the 9.11 attack. As Director of NO DU (depleted uranium) Hiroshima Project and a board member of ICBUW (International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons), I have been involved in producing DU-related publications and documentary films such as a photo-booklet by Takashi Morizumi, Children of the Gulf War: A Different Nuclear War, 2002, and a documentary DVD by Naomi Toyoda and Hitoshi Shimizu, The Unknown Terror of DU: Iraqi Children Now, 2005. |
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