Abstract
On June 3rd, 1993, after continuous volcanic activities, major pyroclastic flows occurred on Mr. Unzen Fugen in Nagasaki Prefecture. The pyroclastic flows took the lives of caused 43 people including media crews of NHK and other news organizations, taxi drivers accompanying them, local fire fighters, police officers, and volcanologists from overseas. The news gathering activities were conducted in the area where “evacuation advisory” regarding pyroclastic flows had been issued, which resulted in the tragedy involving people other than media representatives. Those engaged in journalism should never forget this incident. The large-scale pyroclastic flow disaster marked 30 years in 2021. Taking that occasion, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute digitalized approximate 3,000 tapes of footage for Mt. Unzen Fugen eruption disaster reporting that had been kept at the NHK Nagasaki Station. This paper discusses the significance of archiving such disaster footage.
The author argues that the footage digitalized on this occasion is meaningful in terms of the following three aspects: (1) as the remembrance of the fact that not only media representatives but also fire fighters, police officers and others were victimized in the disaster, (2) for the utilization of the footage as a valuable “textbook” for discussing safety management in preparation for future volcanic disasters, and (3) as an invaluable chronicle of scientific communication between volcanologists and the media over a long period of term. In order not to let the memory of the catastrophe fade away, we are determined to proceed with the listing of footage materials and the thorough examination of content to make the best use of them.
