AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

Three speakers will come from Japan. We will make a presentation about our disaster response to personal materials with historical value through 2011 TSUNAMI disaster. 

Japan has frequently been devastated by natural disasters, including the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the 1995 Hanshin Awaji Great Earthquake. Motivated by the 1995 Earthquake, historians, educators, and citizens developed a multidisciplinary volunteer-based group: Network for Preserving Historical Materials, know as Shiryo-Net. It has worked as an information clearinghouse in times of disaster, implemented educational workshops for volunteer citizens, helped launch regional groups, and promoted the mitigation of future catastrophes. In the aftermath of the 2011 Earthquake, Shiryo-Net played a key role in rescuing and conserving the damaged historical records by mobilizing volunteer citizens. Experts in the preservation field, on the other hand, joined a rescue operation launched by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which administers publicly funded museums and cultural facilities. This operation, called the Cultural Properties Rescue Program, was a two-year limited-time enterprise and operated through publicly raised donations. It purchased supplies, consulted on the salvage of cultural properties, and sent conservators from public museums to the disaster affected regions. This panel, consisting of researchers and conservators from Japan and the US, will discuss the activities and roles of the Shiryo-Net, the Rescue Program, volunteers, and the preservation specialists involved in the 2011 Earthquake. We will review the policies and disaster responses of cultural organizations such as the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese Association of Museums, and The Japan Society for the Conservation of Cultural Property, comparing and contrasting them with North American counterparts, and providing background information of Japan’s historical and social environment.

For example, in Japan the majority of art collections and historical documents are owned by private institutions and individuals. Publicly endowed cultural repositories are scarce and less well funded, and institutional conservators are few. While privately owned historical documents amount to billions or more, they are scattered from Kyoto’s major temple to a village chief’s house. We will analyze Shiryo-Net ‘s strategies and evaluate the Rescue Program’s accomplishments by asking the following questions. How did the strengths and weaknesses of these two operations complement? Was the reliance on volunteers sustainable? Did the museum conservators have adequate training? How were the for-profit conservation businesses involved in the responses? We will discuss the progresses made for disaster preparedness and responses since the 1995 Earthquake, challenges that lie ahead, and the best approaches to mitigate the damages of future disasters. Finally, we will conclude with an appeal for new ideas, networking, and international collaborations.