Memories of Communities Remembered By Cultural Property and Heritage in the Damaged Museum

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, leading to a tsunami and a nuclear disaster in the Tohoku region of Japan. In Tomioka Town, home to a nuclear power plant, all residents were forced to evacuate until 2017. During this evacuation, people lost land, customs, and memories that form the foundation for inheriting the region’s cultural heritage. Additionally, political issues surrounding polluted land and the complicated relationship with the power company divided the community.

The Tomioka Archive Museum, which opened in 2021, categorizes its exhibits into two types. The properties that signify the disaster are referred to as “disaster heritage,” while those that help future residents understand the community are called “local materials.” This research aims to clarify how residents create narratives by viewing the cultural properties and heritage displayed at the museum and how the museum serves as a space for reconstructing and inheriting shared memories.

Walter Benjamin, in his On the Concept of History, expressed that constructing history by oppressed local people is described as “to blush history against the grain.” Through this investigation, three main points were revealed. First, clarifying the subject of the text in museum displays and incorporating residents' narratives helps avoid alienating visitors with differing opinions. Second, the museum encourages residents to empathize with the displays about “disaster heritage,” which evoke painful memories. Third, as disaster recovery progresses, the emergence of properties that can be classified as both “disaster heritage” and “local materials” reflects changing perspectives over time and offers diverse viewpoints on these properties.

In this way, I clarified how the museum’s displays enable residents to recall memories that are difficult to narrate regarding the disaster, empowering each individual to connect with their history in their own way. The museum enables people to 'blush history against the grain' through heritage.