Introducing . . . drum roll please . . . the Kumamoto International Archive . . . tada!!!

https://kumamoto.kirkmasden.com/

It has search capabilities that FAR outclass anything that Facebook offers (all modesty aside). All of the over 7,600 posts can be easily searched with keywords and/or other criteria. The two searches I'm showing do not use keywords (though they could be added); the first searches for the posts made in 2026 that had the biggest reactions (Joe's post hit the ball out of the park in that category) and the second searches for posts made in 2016 that were shared the most (the standout there is a post by Sara about where one can get food and water that she posted after the 2016 quake).

Part of my motivation for doing this is to try to work free (to some extent, at least) of the limitations of the Facebook platform. In 2016, lots of young people participated but since then, though our "likes" and followers have grown, young people have largely left; when I tell foreign students at my university about Kumamoto International they shrug and say "I don't use Facebook."

I'm planning to add an email delivery option to this archive so that people who want daily updates via email can sign up directly on the website to get them. Complete freedom from Facebook!!

I post a lot of links to news articles, which the Facebook algorithm penalizes. The initial idea I had almost 30 years ago was to collate useful information. A fair amount of information about Kumamoto is available in English on the web but it's spread all over the internet. I still believe that organizing information about Kumamoto is a valuable enterprise but, sadly, Facebook doesn't care to support such activities; I can still post but most of the posts languish with very few readers.

At any rate, this is my first formal announcement of the launch of this website. I plan to improve it over the coming years but, if you check it out, I think you'll find that it's already pretty good.

Take care!

-- Kirk