Abstract
Seven years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011. On the wake of the disaster, NHK committed all-out effort to disaster reports. Consequently, plenty of materials such as reporters’ notes and photos, as well as requests and opinions from disaster survivors, are left to each station in Tohoku and those involved in the disaster coverage at NHK. These materials are valuable “record” and “memory” of how the unprecedented catastrophe was broadcast.NHK launched a cross-organizational “initiative for archiving disaster-coverage materials” in autumn 2015 to collect materials that would be easily to be scattered and lost or disposed of in the course of daily reporting or broadcasting tasks. The 162 pieces of materials collected were organized and systemized by professional archivists.Part of the materials were opened to the public from March to September 2017 at the NHK Museum of Broadcasting located in Minato-ku, Tokyo as a special exhibition themed “Great East Japan Earthquake: To Keep Passing Down the Experience.” A questionnaire conducted at the venue shows that “videos capturing the occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake” and “photos of affected areas and reporters and camera persons’ notes” attracted visitors’ attention, and respondents’ requests included making the exhibition a regular one and holding the exhibition across Japan.This project of collecting, organizing, and opening the reporting and broadcasting records on a large-scale disaster is an unprecedented experience even at NHK. This article reviews the series of efforts, from collecting and archiving materials to exhibiting, and presents a vision for future utilization of the materials.
