Pacific Tsunami Museum

In downtown Hilo, Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Museum preserves the history of the April 1, 1946 Pacific tsunami and the May 23, 1960 Chilean tsunami, disasters that devastated much of the Big Island’s east coast and profoundly shaped Hilo. Founded through survivor testimony and community effort by Jeanne Branch Johnston and Walter Dudley in the 1990s, it built a major oral history archive with more than 450 accounts from Hawaii and other tsunami-affected places. Housed since 1998 in a former 1930 bank building, it has served as both a place of remembrance and a center for public education about tsunami impacts, natural hazards, and preparedness, despite recent operational uncertainty.

Paukaa, Hawaii · United States