KAMAISHI, Iwate Prefecture--School officials here initially were hesitant to ask students to write about what they experienced in the tsunami following last March's Great East Japan Earthquake.
KAMAISHI, Iwate Prefecture--School officials here initially were hesitant to ask students to write about what they experienced in the tsunami following last March's Great East Japan Earthquake.
But they finally decided to make it an assignment for Kamaishi Elementary School students during their winter break.
“We wanted to preserve the records for future generations. We thought if children did not write now, they would forget,” one official said.
Their writings have been compiled into a 135-page booklet “Ikiiki Ikiru” (Living vigorously). The title was derived from the school song, written by the late novelist Hisashi Inoue (1934-2010), which reads in part, “I will live vigorously/ I will live vigorously/ I will stand up on my own feet and live straight.”
In the booklet, a girl in the fourth grade writes, “I saw the dark, black sea, which smelled like sewage. I wondered if it was a dream.”
“(I thought to myself that) if I go home now, I could die. I should go to an evacuation center first,” writes a boy in the sixth grade.
From the horror to the joys of a family reunion, the experiences of 66 Kamaishi Elementary students are recounted.
The booklet also contains pictures of the tsunami, which came close to the school building, and the recollections of 14 parents who searched for their children, and 16 teachers and clerical workers who were in charge of safety confirmation and managing evacuation centers.
The school printed 500 copies of the A4-size booklet and distributed them to children and those involved in education in the city.
When the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, all the students had already left the school. None of the children fell victim to the quake or tsunami.
Since most of the school district is in the area expected to be flooded in a tsunami, the school had been focusing on disaster prevention education for three years.
Some children wrote they fled following the traditional wisdom that states “tsunami tendenko”--go uphill using your own judgement when a tsunami strikes.
Of the school’s 140 pupils, 76 had their houses destroyed or damaged and some lost family members in the tsunami.
The school did not push all students to write their recollections, however. Only those who voluntarily wrote were asked to submit their essays.
Some children wrote about their determination.
“I realized the importance of 'kizuna' (strong bonds), family and friends,” wrote a sixth-grade girl. “I will continue to walk looking up at the sky.”
“I want to tell the horrors of tsunami even if I get old,” said a fifth-grade boy.
Toshitaka Katada, a professor at Gunma University and disaster management expert who has provided disaster prevention education in Kamaishi, was impressed.
“The children did a great job in judging the situation and acted properly (when the tsunami struck),” Katada said. “I want adults to read their writings.”