Archaeology and cultural heritage in Fukushima
today: four years since the Great East Japan
Earthquake
KIKUCHI Yoshio1
ABSTRACTThe author, himself a resident of Fukushima prefecture, reports the damages to culturalproperties caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant disaster and works conducted to rescue them. The paper also reports
the rescue excavations organised by the Agency of Cultural Affairs of the sites located in theareas designated for the relocation of devastated communities [Fukko (community restoration)Hakkutsuchosa (excavation)]. The paper also covers problems that have emerged, some of which,including rescue works in radiation-contaminated areas, are extremely difﬁcult to deal with.
KEYWORDS: Great East Japan Earthquake, community restoration excavation (Fukko Hakkutsuchosa),
nuclear power plant disaster, radioactive contamination, rescue archaeology, Japan

Editor’s Note
Kikuchi’s report complements previously published reports on damages caused by
the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
meltdown upon cultural heritage and rescue initiatives in their initial stages (Kaner
2011; Okamura, et al. 2013; Kaner and Kikuchi 2015), by reporting in detail how they
have been implemented, their achievements and remaining problems. Readers may beinterested in reading these reports in conjunction with Kikuchi’s paper.

1 c/o Faculty of Administration & Social Sciences, Fukushima University, 1 Kanayagawa, Fukushima

City, Fukushima Prefecture 960–1296, Japan (kikuchi@ads.fukushima-u.ac.jp)
Category: Report Received: 22 September 2014; Accepted: 27 July 2015
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 3 (2015): 28–41

ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

Introduction
It has already been more than four years since the Great East Japan Earthquake that
occurred on 11 March 2011. In addition to the earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima
prefecture was affected by severe radioactive contamination due to the explosion offour nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The effects ofthis nuclear plant disaster remain a serious problem. While the damage caused by thismultiple disaster has had a signiﬁcant and direct effect on the archaeology and cultural
heritage of the affected regions, the nature and full impact of the disaster have notyet been fully appreciated by archaeologists or cultural heritage management workers
worldwide. Therefore, the author, himself a resident of Fukushima prefecture, reports
here on the local situation and problems faced by archaeology and cultural resource
management.

1.

The damage

1.1

The earthquake

1.2

The tsunami

The epicentre of the earthquake (commonly called ‘The Great East Japan Earthquake,’and ofﬁcially the ‘Tohoku-chiho Taiheiyo Oki Jishin’ [2011 Earthquake off the Paciﬁc
Coast of Tōhoku]) was on the Paciﬁc Ocean ﬂoor, offshore from Miyagi prefecture. It
had a magnitude of 9.0, the largest yet recorded in Japan. While the tremor was felt
over a wide area of the Japanese archipelago, the coastal area of the Tōhoku and Kantō
regions experienced the most powerful tremors, causing much damage, liquefaction ofearth and other destructive phenomena.

A huge tsunami hit the Paciﬁc coast of the Tōhoku to Kantō regions after theearthquake. At some locations, the height of the tsunami waves reached ten metres ormore. The deeply indented coastlines of the Sanriku coastal region of the Iwate andMiyagi prefectures enhanced the scale and force of tsunami waves which reached morethan forty metres in some areas, thus exacerbating the damage. The tsunami also reached
two to four kilometres inland in some coastal plains (e.g. Sendai municipality of Miyagi
prefecture).
The tsunami caused far more numerous casualties than the collapse of buildings orother destruction caused by the tremors. Of the 18 500 dead and missing following theearthquake, more than 90% were victims of the tsunami.1© Japanese Archaeological Association

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1.3

The nuclear power plant disaster

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) Nuclear
Power Plant, located in the Futaba and Okuma townships in Fukushima prefecture, lost
all power due to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, and four out of its six nuclear
reactors either exploded or caught ﬁre between 12 and 16 March. A signiﬁcant amountof radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere and the ocean, resulting insevere, widespread contamination of land and sea across a wide area of eastern Japan,
with Fukushima prefecture at the centre.
Table 1.

Damaged designated cultural resources in Fukushima prefecture by category
Category

National treasures

NationallydesignatedPrefecture
designatedMunicipality
designated

Total

Buildings

1

Buildings

12

24

54

Paintings

0

1

1

2

Sculptures

5

15

33

53

Crafts0112Archaeologicalresources

2

4

12

18

Tangible folk
cultural properties

1

1

7

9

Historic sites

19

12

34

65

Historical sites andscenic beauties

1

3

3

7

Scenic beauty

2

0

0

2

Scenic beauties andnatural monuments

0

2

0

2

Natural monuments

3

3

2

8

Important preservation districts for groupsof traditional buildings

1

Buidings
total

Designated culturalproperties

35

127

Important culturalproperties

Designated tangible
cultural properties

Subtotal82

Sum total

66
148

Overall total

295© Japanese Archaeological Association

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147

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

The radiation contamination of the coastal region of Fukushima prefecture was so
serious that many or all residents of two cities, six towns, and three villages there had tobe evacuated under the direction of the national government. As of today, the residents
of ﬁve towns and two villages, including Futaba and Okuma townships, have not been
allowed to reoccupy their houses. Some residents of other nearby regions also voluntarily
evacuated their homes out of fear of radioactive contamination. As of July 2015, as manyas 110 000 citizens of Fukushima prefecture have evacuated to areas both inside andoutside the region.2

2. Damage to historical sites and cultural assets and responses
for restoration
2.1

Characteristics of the earthquake’s damage to cultural assets

Historical sites and cultural assets located in Fukushima prefecture were severely
damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. Information concerning the damage has
been gathered and compiled by respective governments of the prefecture, cities, towns
and villages. Characteristics of the damage are evaluated by focusing on publishedinformation on the destruction of selected designated cultural resources (Tanno 2013)(Table 1).
The ﬁgure shows that buildings were the most damaged (127 cases; 43%), followed byhistorical and archaeological sites (65 cases; 22%) and wooden statues and carvings (53Photograph 1.

Komine Castle© Japanese Archaeological Association

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KIKUCHI Yoshio

cases; 18%). These three categories together totalled more than 80% of the destruction.
In contrast, damage to paintings, craftworks and ancient remains was comparatively low.
It is clear that the devastation of buildings and larger cultural assets was the greatest(Photograph 1: Damage to Komine Castle).
The tsunami caused signiﬁcant damage to museums and cultural assets in Iwate andMiyagi prefectures, with the destruction of the Rikuzentakata City Museum in Iwate
as a notable example. While widespread damage to cultural resources was reported in
Fukushima prefecture, none affected the museums, fortunately.
The damage to cultural assets in Fukushima prefecture is variously related to the
nuclear power plant disaster. One unsolved problem is that many were contaminatedby radioactivity. Moreover, many cultural resources were left behind in the designatedhazard area, radiating 20 km from the nuclear power plant (where residents cannot

Figure 1.

Schematised map of evacuation oder areas© Japanese Archaeological Association

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

return), and in the so-called planned evacuation zone extending to the west (Figure 1:
Current Evacuation Zone). Problems in salvaging cultural assets caused by the nuclear
accident are discussed further below.

2.2

Rescue activities for damaged cultural assets

Rescue activities for earthquake-damaged cultural assets in Fukushima prefecture havebeen carried out in various ways.
Ofﬁcial rescue activities of cultural resources organised by the local governments
in Fukushima prefecture began in the early summer of 2011. The activities had to be
initiated only when the preservation and restoration of the residents’ lives, property andinfrastructure had been prioritised. They were limited to rescuing the items owned by
local governments or those designated as cultural assets by the respective governments.
Privately owned items not designated as cultural assets were excluded. The activities
were basically organised by each local government, and relevant information was
not sufﬁciently shared between them. Furthermore, some governments had employed
untrained archaeologists or historians as cultural resource management staff. In suchareas, it was extremely difﬁcult to organise rescue activities locally. Despite suchproblems, the actions have managed to preserve and restore a signiﬁcant number ofdamaged and rare cultural resources.
On the other hand, most rescue activities conducted right after the disaster wereorganised on a voluntary basis. Coincidentally, university researchers, museum staff

Photograph 2.

Rescue activity in Kunimi© Japanese Archaeological Association

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KIKUCHI Yoshio

and history enthusiasts formed the ‘Fukushima Historical Record Preservation Network’(also known as ‘Fukushima Historical Record Net’) in November 2010. The groupbegan its various rescue activities within one month of the earthquake. As a volunteer
organisation, Fukushima Historical Record Net has few restrictions and good mobility. It
actively engaged in various rescue activities regardless of the asset’s owner or whether or
not the item was legally designated as such. This was especially crucial during the earlypost-disaster period when the governments could not take sufﬁcient action (Photograph
2: Warehouse Rescue). Volunteer groups for the preservation of cultural resources such as
Fukushima Historical Record Net have been founded since the Kobe earthquake in 1995.
They have now been formed in 22 prefectures across Japan, playing a signiﬁcant role incultural heritage protection and preservation activities. Many more such organisations
will be formed in the future. However, voluntary group activities are ultimately limitedin that they can only act for those cultural assets for which they have information access.
Thus, a signiﬁcant amount of cultural resources likely were and are being destroyed orsold without the knowledge of these groups. Furthermore, the ‘Council for the Rescueof Cultural Assets Damaged in the 2011 Earthquake off the Paciﬁc Coast of Tōhoku’(hereafter ‘Rescue Council’) was established at the national level to conduct various
cultural heritage rescue activities, with a particular focus on those in tsunami-damaged
museums in the coastal areas. Their salvage activities were extended to cover nondesignated assets. This was ground-breaking as far as government-organised activities
are concerned (Okada et al. 2012, 2013). However, due to widespread radioactive
contamination in Fukushima prefecture, initiation of activities organised by the Rescue
Council were delayed for about a year after the disaster.

3. Cultural asset rescue activities in the evacuated areas in
Fukushima
3.1

Events leading to the start of rescue activities

Rescue projects for cultural resources located in the areas from which all residents were
evacuated (hereafter evacuated areas) due to the nuclear disaster had to be organised
differently from the regions described above. First was the concern for the radioactive
contamination of cultural assets themselves. Potential danger caused by the rise ofcrime also had to be considered. Most storage facilities were left untouched since thedisaster due to unrestored electricity and water supply. Furthermore, it was expectedthat entry into many evacuated areas would remain restricted for a substantially long
period of time. Therefore, since 2012, it was thought that leaving cultural resources inthe evacuated areas any longer would be a signiﬁcant problem, regardless of whether or
not they were damaged.
© Japanese Archaeological Association

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

A majority of cultural resources contaminated by radioactivity in the evacuated areas
were immobile items such as historical sites and buildings. Not surprisingly, thesewere all located outdoors. On the other hand, it became clear that most cultural assets
stored indoors (i.e. portable assets) were not subject to severe radioactive contamination.
This ﬁnding led to the initiation of this project, with rescue activities focused on thoseuncontaminated portable cultural resources.
There are four public museums in the evacuated areas: the Futaba Town Museum ofHistory and Folklore, Okuma Town Folklore Museum, Tomioka Town Art and Media
Centre, and Naraha Town Historical Material Museum. There are also storage facilities
housing artefacts excavated by local governments, privately owned works of art andhistorical documents. However, there was no database listing cultural assets left inthe evacuated areas. Their total number was unknown before the project began and it
remains unknown.

3.2

Cultural asset rescue activities

The Cultural Asset Rescue Project in the evacuated areas began in 2012. The ‘Fukushima
Damaged Cultural Asset Rescue Headquarters’ (hereafter ‘Rescue Headquarters’) was
jointly founded in May of that year by the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education,
local governments, the Fukushima Museum, Fukushima University and other relevantorganisations. The Rescue Headquarters’ primary objective is salvaging cultural
resources in evacuated regions. Activity began in earnest from August 2012 with thesupport of the Rescue Council.
This project initially attempted to retrieve cultural assets displayed and stored inmuseums in Futaba, Okuma and Tomioka by following the procedure as follows.
First, the radioactive contamination of each cultural resource was evaluated, and thosemeasuring 1300 cpm or less of contamination (a safety standard set by the Rescue
Headquarters)3 were brought to a temporary storage facility outside the evacuatedareas in Soma, where the contamination was measured again. Only the assets below
the designated contamination level were moved to a temporary storage and restoration
facility in Shirakawa established with funds from the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Necessary restoration works were conducted there.
The amount of radiation measured in museums conducting the rescue works wasaround 0.15 µSv/h. This amount of radiation is medically estimated to have no harmful
effect on the human body. However, to gain access to the museums, those individuals
involved in the rescue works had to pass through the areas where the reading exceeded
20 µSv/h. Therefore, protective clothing was worn upon entering the evacuated areas andremoved on arrival at the museums to prevent the introduction of radioactive substances(Photograph 3: Protective Clothing). Working time was kept to ﬁve hours per day. When
© Japanese Archaeological Association

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KIKUCHI Yoshio

Photograph 3.

Protective clothing

Photograph 4.

Rescue activity in Futaba

the day’s work was completed, workers once again put on protective clothing and left
the museum. They then had their contamination level measured at screening facilities
situated right outside the evacuated areas before ﬁnishing their work day.
Affected museums, storage facilities and premises housing cultural assets in theevacuated areas were visited approximately 50 times by October 2013, and about 4000
© Japanese Archaeological Association

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

Photograph 5.

Storage facility in Shirakawa

boxes of artefacts were salvaged. The core body of workers comprised members of
the Fukushima prefectural and local education boards, and various other organisations
afﬁliated to the Rescue Headquarters. Aided by members of the Tokyo National ResearchInstitute for Cultural Properties and the Tokyo National Museum, rescue activities were
performed by as many as 700 people (Photograph 4: Work Scene). The number also
includes student volunteers from Fukushima University who offered assistance outside
the evacuated areas. Most of the rescued cultural resources from these three museums
are now placed in storage facilities (Photograph 5: Storage Facility).

3.3

Outcomes and problems

The Cultural Asset Rescue Project was initiated by salvaging all cultural assets left inthe evacuated areas, regardless of ownership and designated status. The project managed
to almost thoroughly accomplish its objective, and in terms of scale, it is globally
unprecedented.
However, the following problems remain.
1. The cultural assets whose radiation contamination exceeded several designated safetylevels could not be removed.
2. A large number of cultural resources still remain across the evacuated areas, but therestoration and storage facility in Shirakawa is already nearly full.
3. The temporary archival facility is normally unmanned and only functions in a storage
capacity. Furthermore, it is located nearly 100 km from proper museums, so the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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KIKUCHI Yoshio

artefacts are generally not on display.
4. The whereabouts of remaining privately stored cultural assets are poorly known andthe entire picture of rescued materials and the project’s conclusion cannot yet beclariﬁed.
In other words, considering these problems, these activities and storage conditions are
only temporary measures that cannot solve the fundamental problems facing cultural
heritage preservation in evacuated regions.

4. Restoration excavations (Fukko Hakkutsu-chosa)
4.1

Outline of restoration excavations

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, numerous rescue excavations are being carriedout prior to development activity related to regional restoration (such as building newresidences in high elevation areas and extending highways) in the region, focusing on
the coasts of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. These are called ‘restoration excavations(Fukko chosa).’ However, it is impossible for the members of regional local governments
or excavation foundations to conduct all the necessary rescue excavations by themselves.
Therefore, since the beginning of FY 2012, members of local governments andfoundations outside the earthquake affected region were dispatched to affected areas
across Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures for periods ranging from six months
to a year under orders of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and they have begun offering
their support in excavations and related work. Approximately 60 people were dispatched
to affected areas during FY 2013, and they have been playing a signiﬁcant role in these
efforts.4
An established legal framework and protocols within Japanese institutions for
cultural asset preservation ensure that a rescue excavation is conducted whenever anarchaeological site is to be developed, regardless of whether the land is public or private.
Fearing delays in restoration work resulting from rescue excavations, many mass media
sources expressed their disapproval for a while after restoration excavations began,stating that ‘archaeology is a burden on restoration.’ However, with local prefecturalboards of education and local governments taking the lead in government efforts tominimize the destruction of archaeological sites, while ensuring that development work
is not delayed, opposition among developers and the general public towards restoration
excavations has been minimal (Photograph 6: Rescue excavations prior to the movingof tsunami-devastated communities). Furthermore, signiﬁcant archaeological results arealso being yielded by restoration excavations, including sites that could enrich regional
history. For example, the Sakuraba IV site located in Hirono in Fukushima prefecture
may be an ancient ekiya (facilities built along post roads in ancient Japan) or the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN FUKUSHIMA TODAY

Photograph 6.

Kamishibusa-Harada site

Niidatate castle ruin in Miyagi prefecture, which dates back to the Middle Ages.
Currently, restoration excavations are on track to be completed by FY 2015. However,considering the expansion and delay of restoration work, as well as the necessity of
publishing reports on all excavations, it is difﬁcult to imagine that restoration will becompletely ﬁnished by then. Although no formal decision has been communicated, theinitial plans have been modiﬁed; therefore, the author expects that restoration excavations
may continue after FY 2015 as well.

4.2

Restoration surveys in Fukushima prefecture

While restoration excavations in Fukushima prefecture are similar to those conducted inother prefectures, they were severely affected by the nuclear accident. In other words,
excavations are currently not being carried out in the evacuated areas mentioned aboveout of concern for the effects of radiation on the health of surveyors and workers.
Therefore, restoration excavations are being carried out only outside of evacuatedregions. Furthermore, even during excavations conducted outside of evacuated regions,surveys of historical sites with comparatively high levels of radiation are conducted while
managing the levels of radiation exposure through, for example, such protective methods
as the use of radiation dosimeters by excavators.
On the other hand, development plans are gradually being implemented, even in
the evacuated areas. The ‘interim storage facility’ that will store a large amount ofcontaminated top soil removed from residential and cultivated land within Fukushima© Japanese Archaeological Association

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prefecture are also planned to be constructed in Futaba and Okuma.5 Therefore, the mostpressing concern is how to treat the sites located in these areas. The facility is expected
to be quite large, so the destruction of some archaeological sites located within thedesignated areas is innevitable. A signiﬁcant dilemma therefore exists between managing
people’s health and preserving archaeological sites when it comes to development plans
and related responses to archaeological sites in evacuated areas, and it is thus difﬁcult
for regional and local governments to make their own decisions. It is believed that theinvestigations by concerned central governmental agencies of the situation and potential
problems are still in progress, and we have to keep our careful attention on what decision
will be taken about the matter in the future.

Conclusion
This paper reviewed the current state of archaeology and cultural heritages in Fukushima
prefecture after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Even though more than four years
have passed since the disaster, many problems still exist, and affected areas are a longway from full restoration. The author would like make these conditions known toarchaeologists across the world, and hopes that they will visit the disaster-stricken areasin Fukushima if they ever have the opportunity to come to Japan.
Since the current adopted rescue methods cannot fundamentally solve the problems
regarding cultural assets left behind in evacuated areas, the author believes that theseassets should be comprehensively stored, restored, decontaminated, and displayed. In
addition to planning sufﬁcient preservation and utilization, it is crucial that the Japanese
government establishes an ‘Earthquake Disaster Museum’ (provisional name) that
disseminate information on the current state of Fukushima to the world.6 The author
strongly hopes that people working in related ﬁelds worldwide will raise their voices insupport.
Although there have been no signiﬁcant problems up until now with restoration
excavations, it appears that those who are involved in them and are performing a wide
range of duties (such as coordination with development and excavation) with limited
human resources are growing increasingly fatigued. It is the earnest hope of the authorthat better excavation and preservation methods will be invented through comparison
with relevant examples throughout the world and that this on-going gigantic project ofhuge importance will be heading to a better direction.

Notes
1. National Police Agency website: http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/syouten/syouten281/© Japanese Archaeological Association

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pdf/p02.pdf (last accessed 27 July 2015)
2. Fukushima Prefecture website: http://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/portal/shinsai-higaijokyo.
html (last accessed 27 July 2015)
3. From 16 September 2011, the Japanese government and local governments ofevacuated regions deﬁned the upper limit of radioactive contamination for personal
property that residents could take out of evacuated areas without decontaminatingthem as 13 000 cpm. The Rescue Headquarters set the upper limit for contaminationof extracted cultural assets as 1300 cpm. As one-tenth of the number above, this is avery strict standard.
4. Agency for Cultural Affairs website: http://www.bunka.go.jp/earthquake/tsuchi_maizo/(last accessed 27 July 2015)
5. Ministry of the Environment website: http://josen.env.go.jp/chukanchozou/l (last accessed
27 July 2015)
6. Kikuchi, Yoshio. A Proposal From Fukushima—Toward Establishing an Earthquake
Disaster Museum (Provisional Name)—, ‘Rebirth and History/Cultural Heritage ofFukushima.’ Yamakawa Shuppansha Ltd., pp. 243–264, 2013.

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© Japanese Archaeological Association

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