FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima Prefecture—The famed Hula Girls have started sharing their experiences of the 2011 disasters at elementary schools across the nation, beginning with a visit to children here on May 17.
FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima Prefecture—The famed Hula Girls have started sharing their experiences of the 2011 disasters at elementary schools across the nation, beginning with a visit to children here on May 17.
The hula dancers, from leisure facility "Spa Resort Hawaiians" in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, are giving special lessons for third- and fourth-grade students. The women demonstrate the hula dance and talk about their experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated their local area in March 2011. They also discuss the current state of Fukushima Prefecture and reconstruction efforts with children to get them thinking about the importance of working hard and not giving up.
Fukuyama Minami Elementary School was chosen as the first class thanks to an ongoing exchange between the city and Iwaki. This program has included sending Fukuyama public officers to Iwaki as backup members after the disaster.
About 60 third-grade students attended the class. Three of the dancers performed a hula dance set to the original song “Aina Fukushima,” composed to express their feelings for home, and the pupils learned the hand movements of the hula dance.