The core missions of the Japan Disasters Digital Archive are:
1. To index, preserve, and make widely accessible the digital records of the events of March 2011 and their aftermath, as well as records of other disasters.
2. To provide a public space of information sharing, collaboration, and conversation for citizens, researchers, students, and policy makers.
3. To serve as a site of shared memory for those most affected by these events and most concerned about their consequences
The archive actively solicits user submissions of resources such as websites, videos and photographs, and user testimonials about personal experiences of the disasters and their aftermath. Thus, the archive is an interactive space that encourages, and indeed thrives on, user participation.
Participate
•Browse, annotate and visualize digital records
•Build and share collections
•Contribute reports, photos, videos, links, etc.
•Create and share narratives (e.g. Waku)
Connect and Explore
The archive aims to foster new connections, both between items and among users. As users move from item to item, and collection to collection, they will encounter an ever-expanding network of fellow archivists, from the major organization that submits thousands of geo-tagged photographs to the fellow citizen who submits their family's testimonial to the historian who seeks to understand the interaction of public and private actors in the relief effort.