Description
Environmental issues are far from immune from entanglement in issues of memory and identity politics. This paper examines South Korean discourses on Japan's 2021 plan to release water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This unilateral announcement has faced significant political controversy in Northeast Asia, exacerbating mistrust towards Japan and fear of potential harm in South Korea. Drawing on discourse analysis of the National Assembly, newspapers, and civil society (April 2021 to August 2023), the paper illustrates the extent to which these discourses exemplify enduring insecurities within the wider East Asian region. It discusses how these insecurities are linked to North Korea’s nuclear experiments, US-China competition, and historical tensions following Japanese colonial rule in the early part of twentieth century. In doing so, this paper demonstrates that environmental concerns can be profoundly influenced by both political and historical tensions, shaping approaches to addressing shared challenges posed to the region’s natural environment. By examining the South Korean discourses on the Fukushima Nuclear water release, it explores the role of historical memory in the perception of environmental challenge and how transnational environmental challenge is understood as an international political agenda.
