Tsunami Exhibition Text
-
Upload
kerry-side-gallery -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
0
Transcript of Tsunami Exhibition Text
-
7/28/2019 Tsunami Exhibition Text
1/1
The Archaeology of a Disaster the Aftermath of Japans 2011 Earthquake and TsunamiDean Chapman
On Friday 11th March 2011, as the end of the working week moved to its close, most people in Japan would
have been looking forward to a late winters weekend; many students would have been celebrating the
approaching end to the academic year. Then, at 2:46 in the afternoon, a colossal earthquake struck deep
beneath the Pacic Ocean some 45 miles off of Japans northeast coast. Tsunami sirens wailed along thelength of Japans eastern seaboard and local announcements repeatedly implored people to ee to higher
ground: it wasnt an exercise and a major tsunami was heading their way. It is reckoned the rst tsunami
made land some 26 minutes later. Within the following hour thousands had drowned, towns and cities had
been decimated, and a major nuclear incident was unfolding.
I was preparing breakfast for my wife and children when the rst reports of an earthquake in Japan broke on
the radio particularly worrying news, as my wife is Japanese. We switched on the TV but the now famous
footage had yet to reach the international news channels. Sketchy radio dispatches spoke of tsunamis
inundating hundreds of miles of Japans northern Pacic coast. It took hours for my wife to contact her family,
who live north of Tokyo, to make sure everyone was safe.
Three months after the catastrophe, I hitchhiked down the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japans main island,
retracing a journey Id made in the summer of 2000. Where there had once been vibrant shing communities
and the popular tourist destinations of the striking Rikuchu Kaigan National Park, there was now utter
devastation: towns and cities had been wiped from the surface earth, tsunami walls, bridges, roads and
railways had disappeared. The jumbled scattering of broken materials and miscellaneous objects, everyday
items and personal effects that littered the coastline were being systematically gathered for processing.
Survivors sometimes spoke of their fortunate escape from the inundation, and of the loss of friends, homes
and livelihoods.
I made further journeys along the Sanriku Coast in October 2011 and September 2012. My approach documenting
the consequences of the earthquake and tsunami was rstly determined, in a very straightforward manner,
by having previous visited the northern mountainous coastline I re-photographed locations that I had visited
before. However, through an evolving process of trying to interpret the human and geographical scale of the
disaster in a more subtle and measured manner, I began to look for cultural and personal items or locations
that would act as metaphors for the disaster and the recovery.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is located approximately 80 miles south of the area documentedin this exhibition.
www.deanchapmanphotos.com
TSUNAMI GALLERY