Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In an effort to save the memories of a nation, muddied photographs and albums sent from tsunami-hit areas are washed and repackaged by an army of volunteers across Japan before being returned to their owners. The disaster on 11 March 2011, described by then prime minister Naoto Kan as Japan’s worst since the second world war, killed more than 15,000 people and destroyed the homes and livelihoods of thousands more.
This event is a reminder of the connection between archives and the community. It also reminds us that archives are not impersonal – the papers, the photographs, and the ephemera that we collect once belonged to individuals.