Archiving and Memorializing Disasters International Workshop,
UN World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015/3/16)
Subject: The role of archives and memorialization in Disaster Risk Reduction
Location: Tohoku University

The Digital Archives of IRIDeS held a public forum on Archiving and Memorializing
Disasters at the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (March 14-18, 2015).
For this international and interdisciplinary workshop, Dr. Akihiro Shibayama and Dr.
Sébastien Penmellen Boret (Disaster Information, Management and Public Collaboration
Division) invited experts from the USA, Europe and Asia. These researchers drew fromtheir respective fields of expertise including anthropology, history and information sciencemaking it an interdisciplinary discussion. Together they attracted an informed andenthusiastic audience as well as national media.
In their opening address, Dr. Shibayama and Dr. Boret began the discussion on theroles of digital archives and memorialization of disasters by reminding the audience thatlarge-scale disasters not only caused incommensurable losses but also provided important
information and critical knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction. This informationmaterializes in the form of digital archives and memorialization (i.e. any tangible andintangible acts of remembrance, such as private and public ceremonies, secular andreligious memorial monuments and sites, and also story telling and formal disastereducation). The wealth of data recorded and the memorialization of disasters must serve
to improve local and international policy in order to reduce the impact of future naturalhazards.
During a well-balanced discussion, the participants drew from their respective
activities and research on disaster archives and memorials. Focusing on digital archives,
Prof. Andrew Gordon and Prof. Ted Bestor (Harvard University), Muzailin Afan (SyiahKuala University) and David. H. Slater (Sophia University) discussed the impact of digital
information and technology in four disaster archive projects: Japan’s 2011 Disasters,
Digital Archives of Tsunamis in Aceh (DATA) and Voices from Tohoku. Investigating
disaster memorialization, Susann Baez Ullberg (Sweden National Defense College), RyoMorimoto (Brandeis University) and Sébastien P. Boret (Tohoku University) demonstrated
the process and role of memorialization in post-disaster communities of Japan andArgentina. Perceptible in all these presentations, the presentation of Susanna Hoffman on
the representations of disasters in art and legends across time and cultures confirming theidea that archiving and memorializing have been two long-lived practices forming the social
memory of human disasters.
The synergy created during this public forum ignited a real reflection on the role ofdigital archives and memorials in disaster risk reduction. The first challenge identified is tokeep the memories of disasters alive within and across cultures. The second necessity istherefore to treat archives and memories as dynamic processes requiring bothtechnological knowledge and creative thinking. In order respond to these two challenged,
this workshop concluded with an immediate call for the creation of an international metadatabase and research group of disaster archives and memorialization.

Report by Akihiro Shibayama and Sébastien P. Boret (Disaster Information, Managementand Public Collaboration Division)