Project representative:
Yoshimi Nishi(Associate Professor/Center for Southeast Asian Studies)

Collaborating researchers and co-researchers:
・Hiroyuki Yamamoto(Associate Professor/Center for Southeast Asian Studies/Kyoto University)
・Asanobu Kitamoto(Professor/National Institute of Informatics)
・Rina Suryani Oktari(Associate Professor/Universitas Syiah Kuala)

Introducing this project

This study focuses on a community-based initiative to document and pass on the experiences of disaster and recovery in Aceh, Indonesia, which was severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Using the Memorygraph smartphone app developed by the National Institute of Informatics, archival landscape photos held by researchers and local institutions were integrated into the app, enabling users to compare past and present views of the same locations. This visual tool allows communities to preserve and share their disaster history even as memories fade over time. On the 20th anniversary of the tsunami, a photo contest was held using the app, receiving around 1,500 photos taken by Memorygraph and 64 photos for reference contributions from local residents. These images are now preserved by the National Archives, establishing a participatory system for documenting disaster and recovery.