Join us on Monday, April 3 at 3:30 in 4130 Posvar Hall to learn more. Professor Walker will examine asbestos in the construction and, more importantly, destruction of Japan’s built environment, with a focus on the impact of the 3/11 disaster and the later clean up.' Walker tackles key themes regarding Japan's relationships with its minorities, state and economic development, and the uses of science and medicine. Indeed, asbestos was a critical fiber in the construction of Japan’s modern built environment because of the culturally engrained fear of fire. A Concise History of Japan (Cambridge Concise Histories) To this day, Japan's modern ascendancy challenges many assumptions about world history, particularly theories regarding the rise of the west and why the modern world looks the way it does. Although the United States EPA began phasing out asbestos in the 1970s, Japan continued to use chrysotile asbestos until 2004. Japan’s history of asbestos use contrasts with many other industrialized nations. Now, every time a backhoe or shovel digs into this rubble, asbestos fibers are released into the environment to threaten human health.

Indeed, when the tides of the devastating tsunami ebbed, the unnatural disaster of cleaning up Japan’s pulverized and aerosolized built environment remained.

It also left an estimated 25 million tons of rubble, much of it contaminated with asbestos and other carcinogenic toxins. The strong quake unleashed a tsunami that swept away entire communities. 'On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake devastated northeastern Japan and caused one of Earth’s most dangerous nuclear catastrophes. Walker, Regents Professor of History at Montana State University, Bozeman, will be giving a talk next Monday about disasters in modern Japan.

Brett walker japan