Earthquake in Japan

Japanese earthquake
A message from Japanese Conservator Isamu Sakamoto

I'm forwarding this message on behalf of Isamu Sakamoto, who is
working on salvage operations in Japan in the wake of the earthquake
and tsunami. I know this may not be the proper forum for issues
surrounding recovery of digital media after a disaster, but we
assured him that we would spread the word in the conservation
community in America.  His email is at the bottom of his message,
and he can read English.

    March 28, 2011

    A short message from Tohoku:

    As you know, the Great Tohoku Kanto earthquake recorded M. 9.0
    and the number of dead and missing people has already hit over
    20,000. The earthquake suddenly took from us a large number of
    people and friends and also their property and peaceful lives.

    Many people have been working hard despite the cold, and
    shortage of food and supplies to prevent more loss, myself
    included.

    Allow me to send a message to colleagues in the library,
    archive, and conservation fields all over the world to tell of
    what I have been seeing and experiencing here.

    To begin, I would like to thank everyone all over the world who
    has been supporting Japan and the Japanese in many ways.  It's
    been about three weeks since the disaster occurred, and food and
    supplies have gradually been provided and infrastructure
    including electricity, water, gas, and public transportation has
    been recovering day by day.

    On the other hand, I have been seeing a delay in the rescue of
    information.  What made me so sad was that a concrete back-up
    system and plan to preserve and/or rescue digital components had
    not been created in Japan and therefore we are currently very
    much anxious over how much digital information will be lost.
    While federal and local governments proceeded with creation of
    digital information, such as e-government, digital libraries,
    and digital archives, in collaboration with big corporations
    (Microsoft, Apple, HP), neither government nor corporate could
    provide a system or guideline to rescue or recover these digital
    components right away.  People were left not knowing how they
    should treat the water damaged electronic/digital equipment and
    media.

    I fully understand that rescuing people is always the first
    priority.  Therefore, many medical shelters were set up right
    away all over Tohoku.  At the same time, I think rescuing this
    digital information is as important as rescuing lives.  There
    are only a few specialists who have been volunteering to answer
    people's questions and try to let people know what to do.  I
    would never give up and will continue to recover digital
    information even though I have to fight with shortages of funds,
    specialists, facilities, and equipment.  I hope we can recover
    as much information as possible before it's too late.

    I solicit people to learn the issues of protecting and
    preserving digital information from this disaster in Japan.  Any
    assistance or help from anywhere in the world would be highly
    appreciated.

    Isamu Sakamoto
    Specialist, JICA rescue team for tsunami disaster in Nangroe
        Ache Darussalam, Indonesia
    Paper Conservator
    philia_kyoto<-a t->yahoo< . >co< . >jp

John Bertonaschi
Senior Rare Book Conservator
Library of Congress Conservation Division
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540
202-707-8738
Fax: 202-707-1525


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:46
                  Distributed: Tuesday, April 5, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-46-004
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