Shinichi Fujimura

Introduction

Shinichi Fujimura was born in 1950 from the Miyagi prefecture of Japan. He is a prolific archaeologist, who is well known for his discovery of stone artifacts from the Lower to Middle Paleolithic ages that later turned out to be a hoax. Fujimura had an impeccable skill of finding ruins and sites that held stone artifacts from prehistoric eras. Many of his peers referred to him as “God’s Hands” due to this so-called luck.

Biography

Fujimura grew up in a town near Sendai where he would spend most of his childhood. When he was just a child, he ended up finding prehistoric pottery when playing in his garden. Growing up in Post-World War II Japan, Fujimura was raised during an era where pride in one’s nation was especially important. The environment and culture he grew up in would affect how Fujimura was able to keep his deceptions going.

As a self-made archaeologist with no formal training, Fujimura was an uncommon sight in the archaeological field. He advanced so far in his career that he eventually became a senior director at the Tohoku Paleolithic Institute. Fujimura was able to advance so quickly as he gained a friendly relationship with a well known and respected professor from Tohoku Institute named Chosuke Serizawa. When Fujimura was working with the Tohoku Institute, it was not uncommon for those with no experience to work alongside professionals; therefore, it was not strange for Fujimura to be just as respected and accepted by the archaeological community as his peers. During his time at the Tohoku Institute, he even garnered the attention of the Japanese Archaeology Association.

Scandal

His biggest discovery and hoax was when Fujimura discovered a piece of stoneware that was dated to be 40,000 years old (early Paleolithic period) in 1981 at the Kamitakamori site. This is what brought him to the limelight and what ultimately led to his downfall as there was video recordings of him planting artifacts at the dig site. The recordings were set up by Mainichi Shimbun, a journalist that worked for a prominent newspaper in Japan; his recordings would be released for all to see. Fujimura did not fight the video evidence and admitted to planting fakes of artifacts in over 180 sites. Fujimura did not put into much effort into burying his artifacts as they would be dug up in the wrong strata. The strata in which he buried his forgeries would not have lined up with the time period they were dated to.

Not only did Fujimura have to face the consequences of his actions, but the entire country of Japan felt the aftermath of this hoax unveiling. Fujimura was only able to keep his hoax up for so long because of the system he was apart of. In Japan, culturally it would be offensive to make such a strong claim against them. For someone to have called out Fujimura for his dishonesty would be akin to a personal attack against his character.

The Japanese mandates surrounding archaeological finds was determined to be the main enabler of Fujimura’s hoax as no peer evaluation was needed for Fujimura. In Japan, archaeologists were free to publish their findings without any peer-review and still have their publications be credible. The archaeological community at the time even censored any negativity between archaeologists, which further allowed Fujimura to stay in the limelight for so long.

Outcome

After Fujimura was found out, Japan went through a major remodeling in regards to their archaeological scientific community. Allowing Fujimura to get away with his scandal for so long was a major embarrassment for Japan as it showed how little they focused on releasing quality scientific finds. Especially after the events of World War II it was incredibly important for Japan to try and raise patriotism amongst its citizens and establish that they are still a country full of academic achievements. The acknowledgement that these findings were full of errors that contradict the true history of the nation meant that Japanese historical textbooks were forced to be rewritten. This led to a whole uprooting the basic understanding of the Japanese Paleolithic era as many of the historical context came from Fujimura’s archaeological findings.

Fujimura also experienced many mental health issues post being exposed for fraud, which led to him entering a mental institution. So much so that investigations surrounding his work had to be postponed to a further date. He then went on to move from his home, remarry, and change his name, all in order to better his mental health surrounding the scandal and to attempt to create a fresh start.

Pseudoarchaeological Narrative

Fujimura claims to have continued his scandal for so long because he wished to continue finding more stone artifacts from the paleolithic era, the real issue lies in the culture surrounding him. Post War Japan was eager to prove itself a great country again take the focus off of their war crimes. This meant that the Japanese government would push any “positive” achievement they could towards the public. In essence, it all boils down to nationalism and the need to prove a nation’s superiority. Even if Fujimura wasn’t intentionally trying to showcase these impressive finds in the name of Japanese pride, he still was kept in the spotlight for so long because Japan wanted a positive achievement to come out of their country. They were willing to let Fujimura cheat the system and become an influential archaeologist with no advanced degree or scientific training.

Dissecting the Motive

Japan after World War II attempted to change their image to one of innovation and peace. It is why many today associate it with innovative technology, futuristic society, and above all, well mannered citizens. When an archaeologist such as Fujimura appears and is given such an extreme nickname as “God’s Hands”, it came as no surprise that he would be given the amount of fame he received during his career. Japan could boast about their extensive list of prehistoric findings. One of Fujimura’s stone artifacts was said to be dated back to a time before Japan had been using stone and instead of other archaeologists refuting his claims, they were silenced into allowing the public to believe that their ancestors were more advanced than they originally were led to believe.

Some Miyagi archaeologists even attempted to refute Fujimura by acknowledging that the Miyagi prefecture site that Fujimura was at could not have produced paleolithic era artifacts, but all of their rebuttals were ignored by the community due to Japan’s refusal to allow critique and due to the success that Fujimura brought to Japan’s archaeological community. The most notable of these refusals were two Archaeologists by the names of Shizu Oda and Charles Keally. Before Fujimura was exposed for his false discoveries, Oda and Keally both had written about how noticeable the faults in Fujimura’s findings were. However, since the scientific culture at the time did not allow for such blatant critique the two od them were ignored like anyone else who had spoken up about Fujimura.