NIHONMATSU, Fukushima Prefecture--The All Japan High School Cultural Festival will run here next month after nearly being canceled following the March 11 tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
NIHONMATSU, Fukushima Prefecture--The All Japan High School Cultural Festival will run here next month after nearly being canceled following the March 11 tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Organizers initially feared that no one would want to come near the annual event if it were held in Nihonmatsu, a city in the center of the prefecture about 57 kilometers from the nuclear plant.
However, the high school students on the organizing committee are now eagerly preparing to receive 12,000 high school students from all over Japan on Aug. 3-7.
Participants at the festival for high school cultural clubs will compete in 16 cultural categories, such as singing, shogi (Japanese chess) and newspaper production.
The competition is sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Agency and other organizations.
The student organizing committee, set up in June 2010, is handling the opening ceremony and exchange programs. There is also an organization committee of adults.
Forty-nine students from high schools in the prefecture were chosen for the committee through an open recruitment process.
"The committee is a cheerful and positive group of students who express their opinions freely and work responsibly to get the job done," said vice chairwoman Ai Shoji, 16, a second-year student at the private Fukushima High School in Fukushima city.
The Great East Japan Earthquake struck just days before the committee's first scheduled meeting this year, suspending the group's plans.
In late April, the committee sent out a questionnaire to its 49 members asking whether they thought the festival should go ahead in Fukushima Prefecture.
Some on the adult organizing committee said it should not be held, after some parents and students expressed fears about the spreading radiation.
Other students also worried about falling behind in their studies and preparations for next spring's university entrance examinations.
But many students were eager to participate.
Toshiki Miura, 17, a third-year student at Tomioka High School, wrote in reply: "I want the event to go ahead because I have already begun preparing for it."
His home is in the evacuated town of Tomioka, close to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Miura has been forced to move to several evacuation centers.
For the cultural festival, Miura was in charge of exchange programs with students from Hawaii, and was really looking forward to using English, his favorite subject, with the visiting students.
Many other students on the organizing committee were also eager to see the event go ahead, so in May, they decided to hold it. However, the event's size was scaled back and participation from abroad was canceled.
Miura switched over to handling the opening ceremony. "I am happy," he says. "I want to work anyway I can to help the participants."
Chairman Akio Endo, 18, a third-year student at Asaka High School in Koriyama, had wavered, however. In the questionnaire, he had written: "We should hear the opinions of those affected by the disaster."
Then he received an e-mail from a friend who was evacuated to Chiba Prefecture: "As Fukushima (Prefecture) is doing its best for recovery now, you should encourage that recovery by holding the All Japan High School Cultural Festival."
That convinced Endo.
On June 23, the 49 students on the committee met for the first time in six months in Nihonmatsu. They sang the event's theme song, which was videotaped. The footage will be aired at the opening ceremony.
Watching the students sing, some adults around them were moved to tears.
Now, only two weeks remain before the big festival.
Shoji, leader of the group in charge of the opening ceremony, is busy dealing with PR work and welcoming visitors from around Japan to the Fukushima prefectural government office.
"As long as people in Fukushima Prefecture continue to live here, I want to improve the area's image. I think holding such an event in a cheerful manner will help achieve that," Shoji said.
The event is supported by The Asahi Shimbun and several other organizations.