標本レスキュー活動(<特集>東日本大震災における標本レスキュー活動)

概要

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On 1 April 2011, the Agency for Cultural Affairs started a project to save cultural properties damaged during the 11 March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and associated tsunami. Since the title of the project was "A Rescue Project to Save Cultural and Other Properties," it gave the impression that natural history specimens were not covered by the project. The scientific community, including natural history museums throughout Japan, offered their help to decimated museums in Tohoku within a few weeks after the disaster. Due to the sheer scale of the disaster, Japanese bureaucratic systems were slow to respond to requests for help from damaged or destroyed museums. Accordingly, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, museum specimens were rescued thanks to voluntary activities of "The Network of Museum Curators of Iwate Prefecture" and "The Network of Natural History Museums in Western Japan". These networks of volunteers functioned surprisingly well in response to pleas for help from local museum curators like Masaru Kumagai. Kumagai believed that it was critical to save museum specimens since these collections support the identity of local communities.
2013-03-31