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THE ETHICS OF MUSEUMS, THE CASE OF THE JAPANESE“EARLY PALEOLITHIC HOAX”Yoshiaki Kanayama - Hosei University, JapanThe earlist Japanese stone tools were found at the site of Kami-Takamori in MiyagiPrefecture, and dated 500,000BCE. Over the years, 1976 to 2000, FUJIMURA Shinichidiscovered more than 30 Early Paleolithic sites including the one above. But onNovember 5 th 2000, the Mainichi Shinbun, a Japanese newspaper, reported havingwatched FUJIMURA planting Jomon-era stone tools at Kami-Takamori. This is whathas come to be known as the Japanese “Early Paleolithic hoax”. With this hoax,Japanese Archaeology lost its good name.What is the hoax affect on our museums?There were three types of ways in which the museums treated the exhibition of theseearly Paleolithic tools and pictures, before admitting the truth more than five years later.The first, the special exhibition displayed by about ten museums, Edo-Tokyo Museumetc, all over Japan, governed by the Agency for Cultural Affairs from 1995 to 2000.These took an active part in familiarizing the artifacts to society. The second, theTohoku History Museum, founded and administrated by Miyagi prefecture, proudly,showed artifacts found in that prefecture. They were intimately involved with thearcheologist and the ‘hoax team’. The third were the national museums, Tokyo NationalMuseum and National Museum of Japanese History, were unknowingly displaying theartifact as legitimate findings.After exposing the hoax in news paper reports, two National museums immediatelyremoved all the artifacts from their exhibitions without almost any explanation at all.One of them said; “we had some doubts so we have removed the exhibition”. But Ithink that they should have added an explanation hinting for the truth to be known.People had not gotten the opportunity to observe these tools whether they were real ornot.The Japanese Archaeological Society that started to verify the problem of “the EarlyPaleolithic hoax” to its members in June 2001, in May 2003, reported that all sitesadmitted, and all sites excavated by FUJIMURA were, indeed, fake. And Japanesearcheologists reported their conclusions at the Society for American Archaeology inApril 2004.But there is still a lot of disinformation claiming the artifacts to be real, in book form andon the web.Nothing is being done to correct this. I’m afraid people may remember the artifacts asreal in future. Even though, none of the museums have tried to re-display any of theartifacts to clear matters up or spread information to the public. They have an obligationto inform the public about the truth.There is a reason museums must be treated as institutions of education. Museumshave a favorable position unlike the other institutions, to spread information to peopleabout the material things in exhibitions, in daily life. Museums should not forget this factat the expense of future generation.To take part, museum can display the history of the hoax, the fabricated stone tools,the pictures of these sites etc. And we should not avoid explaining why archeologistsadmitted those tools at sites, the manifest of the archeological committee has to avoidletting it happen twice. Museums must transmit, to the next generation, the lessonslearned from the hoax. They have to regain any trust, lost by the public, by exposingany distorted ethics. So that the truth will be known.319