The initiative was promoted in accordance with the central government’s basic reconstruction policy set in July 2011 to make memories of the disaster easily accessible for the general public.

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A decade on, Fukushima evacuee still afraid to move back home

A decade on, Fukushima evacuee still afraid to move back home

The digital archive, now connected to over 50 databases of entities including local governments struck by the disaster, media and universities in addition to the library’s own collections, features survivors’ testimonies and first-hand public records, such as a diary kept at an evacuation shelter in Natori, Miyagi prefecture.

Of the 4.45 million items, 1.54 million are documents and about one million are photos showing the devastation caused by the quake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, as well as landscapes before the disaster.

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Materials on other known disasters, such as the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake that jolted the western Japanese city of Kobe and the surrounding area, and the powerful quakes that struck the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto in 2016, have also been added to the archive to promote the study of disaster responses and reconstruction policies.

Users search for data using keywords as well as themes such as disaster preparedness, damage reports, relief efforts and aid for reconstruction. Internet links will be provided if the content is available online. As for materials such as paper books, the archive will indicate their locations. Information is also available in English, Chinese and Korean.

With 10 years having passed since the disaster, some entities can no longer preserve materials related to the calamity and the Diet library is planning to take them over, its officials said.

Since 2014, the Fukushima Museum in Aizuwakamatsu, which is run by the prefectural government, has collected items that illustrate the impact of the quake and the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Its collection of several thousand items ranges from a clock that stopped at the time of the quake to a bag of rice with a sticker indicating its content has passed a radioactivity inspection. Many of them are yet to be sorted.

Tadasuke Tsukuba, a curator at the museum, said collectors have been racing against time, as many disaster-related goods have been cleared up in reconstruction work despite discussions on whether to preserve them.

“We hope to pass on items that show how Fukushima was damaged by the (triple) disaster so that people can look back and think about it,” Tsukuba said. The museum is displaying 170 items from its collection in a special exhibition that runs until March 21.

Meanwhile, a project to designate sites that tell the horrors of the 2011 disaster has been launched to network facilities in four prefectures: Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.

The “3.11 Densho Road” project has so far listed 271 disaster-related monuments, ruins, remains and facilities. The designated locations are listed on maps, and signboards inform visitors about places where disaster experiences can be shared through words of survivors and other means.

Taro Kanko Hotel in Miyako in Iwate reminds visitors of the power of the waves that destroyed its lower part leaving nothing but iron frames. Nakahama Elementary School in Yamamoto, Miyagi, illustrates shocking remnants of the tsunami damage inside the building that sheltered about 90 students, teachers and local residents on its rooftop until they were rescued.

“I hope visiting these sites will help people prepare for future disasters and protect lives,” said Yoshinobu Harada, executive director of a foundation promoting the initiative. “Our message goes beyond Japan because disasters can take many forms and could hit anywhere on Earth.”