This summer, tours of the areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake are bringing students from other prefectures to observe first-hand the damage done by the quake and tsunami.
This summer, tours of the areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake are bringing students from other prefectures to observe first-hand the damage done by the quake and tsunami.
Although some adults had concerns about whether the reality would be too shocking, the children who have visited appear to have taken something back with them.
The Chikyu Genki Mura (Global energetic village), a nonprofit organization based in Saitama, began a three-day bus tour of the disaster-stricken areas from July dubbed "Gareki no gakko" (School of rubble).
The participants in the first tour were 10 children from Tokyo, Saitama and Yamanashi prefectures, along with eight parents.
One participant, Yuki Abe, 13, said he was not that enthusiastic about joining the tour when he disembarked the bus in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.
"I said I saw what was happening in the disaster areas on TV so that was enough," Abe said. "But, my parents said, 'Something may change if you go,' so I came to see what I would find."
He rode an overnight bus that left Tokyo's Shinjuku area so he was still sleepy when he reached Miyagi.
When the group moved to a hamlet that had been damaged, Abe began peppering his father with questions.
"How will they handle the rubble still left in the ocean?" Abe asked in a whisper. "Did landslides also occur here?"
Other children also began asking questions of nearby adults. Faced with the scale of the disaster before them, the children talked in barely audible whispers.
"I never had any doubts when I saw it on TV," Abe said. "But, the reality hits me hard when I see the actual situation."
While he realized the tsunami that struck the area were huge, he only understood how frightening it must have been when he looked up to the branches of a certain tree that a guide said was where the waves had reached.
The children were especially shocked when they saw what happened to a local school, which is something they could all easily associate with.
Togura Elementary School in Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, is a three-story structure that stands isolated in a wide barren area. Next to the school building is the remains of a steel framework.
The children asked "What was that?"
When they are told it was the school gymnasium, Hayata Takeda, 12, looked down in disbelief.
"How can a gymnasium end up like that?" he asked.
Searching for the word to describe what he has just seen, Takeda said finally, "It's very cruel."
There is no consensus among adults about whether children should be shown the disaster-stricken areas.
Shuyukan Senior High School in Fukuoka Prefecture has decided to switch the destination of a school trip for second-year students scheduled for January from Nagano Prefecture to Miyagi Prefecture and include stops to help them learn about the disasters.
While some parents support the move, others raised concerns about whether the disaster areas should be an object of sightseeing and the possibility of aftershocks.
The adventurer Shinji Kazama, 60, heads the Chikyu Genki Mura and also planned the "school of rubble" tour.
While he said he understood the hesitancy felt by adults, he organized the tour after he himself volunteered to help in the disaster-stricken areas.
"I want to show these areas to the generation who will be in charge of the future so they can think about what has happened," Kazama said. The group plans to continue to organize the bus tours once a month.
Toward the end of the tour, Abe sat on the sidewalk of a destroyed town.
"I have no idea what we should do after we return to Tokyo," he said.
He had no idea what he alone could do nor what should be done about all the rubble as well as what would happen if another disaster struck while the rebuilding process was continuing.
Sighing, he said, "No one is at fault when a natural disaster strikes. That is probably what makes it that much more difficult."
Abe was asked if children should not be shown the disaster areas.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "No. While I said I saw it on TV, I did not understand anything. There was something that I felt after coming here and seeing for myself. So, I don't think children should not be shown this."