Authors try to encourage students in tsunami-stricken Tohoku

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MORIOKA, Iwate Prefecture--Well-known authors and celebrities provided inspirational messages for a booklet to encourage high school students in Iwate Prefecture affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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Asahi Asia & Japan Watch
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By SHINJI FUKAMATSU/ Staff Writer
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Authors try to encourage students in tsunami-stricken Tohoku
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MORIOKA, Iwate Prefecture--Well-known authors and celebrities provided inspirational messages for a booklet to encourage high school students in Iwate Prefecture affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Titled “Prelude,” the booklet is unique in the fact that many of the contributors have some connection with the devastated prefecture in northeastern Japan.

The project was the brainchild of Kumiko Yaegashi, a teacher at prefectural Shizukuishi Senior High School.

Yaegashi was moved by an essay written by author Atsuko Asano in The Asahi Shimbun in late March 2011.

“What are in need in the disaster-stricken areas right now is not words, but materials, manpower and information,” Asano wrote. “But soon words—genuine words—will become necessary.”

Yaegashi hit upon an idea to make a collection of essays to encourage students affected by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

She suggested the idea to the literature division of the prefecture's senior high school cultural federation, of which she is a director. The group asked authors and other cultural figures who were born, raised or work in the prefecture for their cooperation.

The B5-size 64-page booklet contains original works by Norifusa Mita, the cartoon creator of the popular comic ‘Dragonzakura” as well as an essay by author Katsuhiko Takahashi.

Mita wrote: “The young people affected by the March 11 disaster suffered a lifetime's misfortune all in one day. However, after their wounds have healed a little, they must have grown much stronger and more vigorous than people of the same generation.”

The booklet reprinted essays by authors such as Jakucho Setouchi and Shizuka Ijuin that were published in newspapers and magazines after the March 11 disaster.

Asano sent a new message, too.

“With the help from the power of words, we want to encourage the young people who play a role in reconstruction,” Yaegashi said.

Most of the 10,000 copies printed were given to high school students in the prefecture's coastal areas, which were devastated by tsunami that followed the earthquake.

The editors are seeking donations for reprints. A donation of 5,000 yen ($65.20) or more will guarantee a copy. For information, call Kawaguchi Industrial Printing Corp. at 019-632-2211.

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