One child sent words of encouragement to his father overseas. A girl lamented about canceled school activities. And another child told his grandfather, who died in the March 11 tsunami, not to drink too much sake in heaven.
One child sent words of encouragement to his father overseas. A girl lamented about canceled school activities. And another child told his grandfather, who died in the March 11 tsunami, not to drink too much sake in heaven.
They are among 100 children in areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami who are uploading video footage of themselves on the Internet to "convey what they want the most now."
The project, called Children CoFesta, was organized by the Association of All Japan TV Program Production Companies (ATP) earlier this year.
Member companies proposed that children in disaster areas film themselves to show their thoughts, feelings and how they are coping in the Tohoku region.
Many of the messages so far are intended for friends who have left the disaster areas or family members killed in the quake or tsunami.
ATT started the project under the framework of CoFesta (Japan International Contents Festival), a contents program promotion event sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
One hundred people in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, ranging from elementary school pupils to senior high school students, took part.
The children initially wrote letters about what messages they wanted to convey. Then they started shooting footage to accompany those messages.
Young employees of ATP member companies are helping the children in the project, especially with editing the footage down to three minutes.
Film director Hirokazu Koreeda is also taking part in the editing process.
"Children's perspectives are diversified and are beyond adults' imaginations," said Soichiro Tanizaki, 57, an ATP director who was one of the people who started the project. "I hope that video clips that show their thoughts in a straightforward manner will reach (the people of) the world."
Once completed, the children's works are uploaded to the CoFesta website (http://www.cofesta.jp/2011/kodomo/).
The deadline for submitting the videos is the end of February.
Ten works can be already seen on the website, including one by a sixth-grader in elementary school who talked about the Kitakamigawa river that swallowed so many people after the March 11 tsunami reached shore.
"Some people say that they hate the river. But I cannot dislike it because my grandfather, who was a fisherman of fresh water clams, liked it," the boy said.
He then called on his dead grandfather "not to drink sake too much (above the clouds)."
In a different video, a sixth-grader said she was sad that school events, including a track and field meet, swimming classes and a school trip, were canceled.
She also read a letter to Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying, "I want them to know this thought."
Her video also showed her father and mother engaged in decontamination work. When her father came into focus, he said, "I will do my best." The girl said she thought anew, "I also have to make efforts to recover my previous life."
In another video, a boy sent an encouraging message to his father, who was transferred to China after his company's factory in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, was washed away by the tsunami.
Yukari Inoue, 27, an employee of television program production company Dai Media Corp., who helped four children with their videos, said: "In front of video cameras, some children expressed emotions that they did not show when their mothers were nearby. I felt that children are holding onto secret thoughts that adults are not aware of.