On Memory and Morphology: Field Notes from Tokyo’s Arboreal Archive of Wartime Destruction

This source note introduces a rich and largely unknown archive of Tokyo’s long history of urban conflagration: sensai jumoku, the scores of trees scattered across the city that carry the scars of wartime firebombing in their morphology. It profiles five particular war-damaged trees, each offering different insights into the interpretative challenges and opportunities that come with working in this arboreal archive of destruction. Far from static witnesses to the past, these shape-shifting trees tell remarkable stories not only of war and defeat but also of care and repair. At a time when memories of World War II are rapidly fading and catastrophic fire disasters are growing more frequent, the task of conveying these stories is more urgent than ever.