Preservation of 2011 quake devastation sites faces funding crunch

I am shure that there is a lot of other museums, tourist attractions that are struggeling for financial help as well, who should get preferential priority support? any? all? I think its worth keeping and supporting these disaster museums, this covid pandemic is only going to have a temporary effect on tourism, once people get there jab and flights start again, people will return.

In a way, are not all museums memorials to past disasters? Meanwhile, Japan has trillions of yen to dither away on the "regrettable" Olympics instead of funding reminders of the folly of building where nature is going to sooner or later roll a giant tsunami. Establish more "do not build below here" stones in the hills, etc.

Museums to teach history and preach love between human beings? Yes!

Museums to remember nature reclaiming earth as it happens every year somewhere in the globe? ....

Takes time, and please do NOT use tax payers money while doing it, top priority is to home the homeless, feed the hungry, train the jobless, and educate the children.

I agree with @Simian L. All those many depressing news and places, like memorial days, museums, cemeteries, monuments, TV documentaries and a lot more of all such, are also responsible for those very high suicide rates, if you have questions about the reason for those numbers, already very high among the youth and employees. Sometimes remembering events or persons or do a prayer is not a bad thing per se, but please, not repeated 24/7 on all available channels. If you are really so addicted to be surrounded with such depressing and death or catastrophic things, become a cemetery or crematorium worker, but leave the rest of us alone with your depression, because we all die early enough anyway, no need for you to accelerate intentionally.

I wouldn't pay to look at anything like what's mentioned in the article, because the preserved ruins of the 2011 Great East Earthquake and Tsunami are NOT necessary reminders to help minimize casualties in future disasters. You minimize casualties in future disasters through relevant education and the changing of bad habits like building things where you shouldn't.

I was in Sendai when it happened. I saw enough, then, and lots more during my annual trips all over that part of the country. And I paid nothing for those experiences, except with something more valuable than money - my thoughts and prayers for the almost 20,000 people who died.

Those places must be preserved at a certain extent. This was a huge disaster and part of the history. Important for the memories of future generations. Even in Tokyo, the antenna of the Tokyo Tower was bended. It would have been good to keep it like that. But no. Taxpayer money is wasted for so many useless things, useless roadworks for example. I do not mind that the taxpayer money is going to museums...... Otherwise, war museums should all be ended... History is part of the learning to avoid future mistakes.

There need to be memorials, but manageable ones, not huge buildings that have large maintenance costs. Given the nature of the disaster, something topped with a tall pole marking the height of the tsunami might be appropriate, for both remembrance and as a warning.

The three hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima have preserved 17 sites in all memorializing the disaster, with three open to the public for a fee and four others being readied to be opened for paid access.

I understand that there was widespread suffering which people want remembered, but several sites in each prefecture is probably overkill. The site in the story has good reviews, but photos of it show that the school building needed to be very heavily reinforced with steel girders in many of the classrooms. Keeping a building is not a case of just fencing it off and putting up some info boards. Unlike older historical events, there is loads of great video footage of the disaster, creating less need for actual buildings to be kept.

https://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20190310/19/marnim/39/a5/j/o1280096014369633258.jpg

One would think that we have pictures and videos to remind of of such disasters. Why keep the place as it is? Life goes on, memories last and pictures and videos preserve those moments this is what reminds us of the past so that we can go forward instead of walking past a disaster reminding of us of something that happened years ago. If one continues to see this daily, how can they move on with their lives. Get rid of the buildings and use the space for something all can enjoy.

These are poignant reminders for the next generations to understand the power that explosively causes massive damage to occur-so important!

Reminds me of the millions spent on preserving the dead tree at the behest of a mere few people. I'm not saying this should be forgotten -- not at all -- but keep one, extremely poignant site, and do what the nation does when it comes across far more important archeological digs or what have you; document it, take photos, then pave over it and use the land.

"We should not consider the maintenance cost to be a matter only for those local governments, but we must share the burden throughout society,"

Nahhh... actually, I think "we should not consider the maintenance cost". Period. There is no reason to have EVERYTHING be a museum of the disaster.

wow so that photo is a third floor of a building! Yeah definitely keep it. Should be supported. History is swept away for convenience far too often

When I saw this photo all I could think of was a news tape, one of the few I saw because I could not stand watching them, and on a road was a little white car driving blindly TOWARD the incoming wave and I remember just shouting crazily TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND! as I imagined a panicked mother or father trying to rescue their children and the horror of that whole thing is unbearable to keep in mind... why would ANYONE want such disaster so graphically recalled. We mourn and we have the blessing of incompetent memories but, yet, I sob when I think of all of those innocents just being wiped away by what was just a small ripple in Earth's history...words are useless here and maybe GRAPHIC evidence is more than what is necessary. If something is needed, look to the Chinese mentality as expressed in the Vietnam Monument in Washington, D.C. Dignity...remembrance of the People rather than the event.

This is a sad situation, one big part of the current problem with the reconstruction of Fukushima is that people are already forgetting about it. More support have to given or else it will be repeated endlessly.