This article introduces the sticky notes visitors contributed and shows what the panels looked like during the exhibition period of “March 12: The First Meal After the Earthquake ––– When, Where, and What Did You Eat?” For the summary of each exhibited panel, please check out the [INDEX] page.

 

▼About “March 12: The First Meal After the Earthquake”
▼About sticky note comments

 

[Fall 2014] Exhibited Panels

 

Exhibition Period: October 1st to November 16th, 2014
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque

 

[Spring 2015] Exhibited Panels

 

Exhibition Period: February 20 to March 18, 2015
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque

 

*On the panels with sticky notes from the [Fall 2014] exhibition, visitors added their own comments.
*The sticky note written in English is a translation of the Japanese text indicated by the arrow.

Comments by Visitors about the Panels

Some comments are not directly related to the photo content or location.

 

▷I went to the office that supports the homeless, thinking, “I’ll do something to help them.” I found homeless people distributing food to people nearby. I also received an onigiri and tonjiru from them. My heart and my belly were filled! We’re all supporting one another.

▷↑Moved to tears by this

▷↓Tsutsujigaoka

▷At the first emergency food distribution, I received rice porridge. I gave it to a boy and made sure he ate it. Then, I asked him to go and get water.

▷Maybe it was because I was in the city center, but I didn’t find any emergency food distribution around me even once…

▷Even in the city center, at Hasekuramachi in Aoba Ward, there was tonjiru distribution at Honganji Temple Sendai (Nishi-Honganji).

▷The baked sweet potatoes from Kyushu that a sweet-potato shop volunteered to serve were the most delicious. I received a hot one from my younger sister, and it was really wonderful. I was grateful, both for the taste, and for the kindness.

 

About sticky note comments

People from many different backgrounds visited this exhibition, including people from Sendai City, as well as people from everywhere, including coastal areas, inland areas, inside and outside of Miyagi Prefecture, and inside and outside of Japan. There were also both adults and children, and these people left comments on sticky notes about what they remembered from seeing exhibited photos at the time of the disaster. Here, the original text comments that were left are posted without editing. Also, English text in gray are translations of Japanese texts.

 

 

Original Photo

“Emergency Food Distribution at the Local Nursery”

 

March 13th, 2011
Miyagino Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture
Recorded by SATO Keiko

 

*Source:
Photo Collection “3.11 Record of Memory—3.11 Disaster that Citizens Took as Record of Memory—”
Issued and provided by: 20th Century Archive Sendai

 

 

 

About “March 12: The First Meal After the Earthquake ––– When, Where, and What Did You Eat?”

The project is a participation style exhibition that exhibits photos of “meals” at the time of the disaster, such as photos related to emergency food distribution, grocery shopping, and people sharing meals at a table. Visitors were free to write sticky notes about what they remembered after seeing the photos and how they lived at the time. This exhibition was planned collaboratively by 3.11 Archive of Memories (at the time, called 20th Century Archive Sendai) and the center for remembering 3.11 (recorder311).
Please check out the [INDEX] page for the summary of each exhibited panel and utilization/application examples.