On Saturday 7th March, two irreplaceable Japanese artefacts disappeared during Japan Celebration Day at the Kaetsu Educational and Cultural Centre in Murray Edwards College.

A priceless replica school textbook and wooden plaque were found to be missing when staff began to clear away at the end of the day. Having launched a search party, a call was put out and the message spread until one visitor was discovered to have taken them, thinking that they were free souvenirs. The artefacts were soon returned with many apologies from the culprit.

The two artefacts had never previously left Japan and were on loan to Cambridge for a short period. The replica mathematics textbook was an example of what would have been used in schools across Japan during the Second World War.

Another WWII artefact, the wooden plaque, would have been forcibly worn by citizens of Okinawa who continued to use their native tongue rather than the language spoken in the rest of Japan. The population of Okinawa suffered considerably during the war as the island was a major Japanese-American battleground.

Both historic items are now being safely returned to Okinawa’s Peace Memorial Museum.

The disappearance ordeal certainly added an unexpected element to the 12th Annual Japan Celebration day at the centre, located within the grounds of Murray Edwards College. The event was opened by Mayor Gerri Bird and included talks given by speakers from international communities and live music and dance from a team of performers from Tokyo.

The Museum Director, Peter Roberts-Taira, described the day as “absolutely brilliant”.

Roberts-Taira also explained the worrying artefact incident and frantic search which followed the realisation that they had disappeared: “You wouldn't know they were valuable to look at, so maybe somebody just thought they could take them. The message went out wider to people who asked their friends, and apparently they discovered a friend of a friend had thought those things were possible to take away as souvenirs. They are irreplaceable, if they are gone, they are gone forever. It's very, very special to have them at all.”

The Director expressed his “huge relief” at the safe return of the missing artefacts, which enabled the successful continuation of the event.