SENDAI--Bereaved family members of four children on a bus who died in the March 2011 tsunami wept for joy on Sept. 17 after the Sendai District Court ordered a kindergarten in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and its principal to pay a total of 177 million yen ($1.77 million) in damages to the families.
SENDAI--Bereaved family members of four children on a bus who died in the March 2011 tsunami wept for joy on Sept. 17 after the Sendai District Court ordered a kindergarten in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and its principal to pay a total of 177 million yen ($1.77 million) in damages to the families.
“I was relieved. We, the bereaved families, did our best (to win in the trial),” said Megumi Sasaki, 34, who lost her 6-year-old daughter, Asuka. “(I want to tell Asuka that) I will never let your death be in vain."
The court recognized the responsibility of the private Hiyori kindergarten for dispatching a bus to take children to their homes in the coastal area, despite the tsunami warning following the massive Great East Japan Earthquake. The kindergarten, situated on a hill, did not suffer any damage from the tsunami.
“After the earthquake occurred, the kindergarten neglected its duty to gather information on the tsunami through the radio and other means,” said presiding judge Norio Saiki.
The ruling strengthened the bereaved families’ belief that the kindergarten should acknowledge its failure to protect the lives of the children, and that society as a whole should consider measures to prevent a recurrence of a similar tragedy.
“I hope that today’s ruling will lead many schools, kindergartens and nursery centers to review their safety measures again so that top priority is given to the protection of children’s lives,” said Mika Sato, 38, who lost her 6-year-old daughter, Airi.
The ruling was the first of at least nine lawsuits filed by bereaved families of victims of the disaster against organizations that were responsible for their safety.
Immediately after the earthquake struck, the bus departed from the Hiyori kindergarten with 12 children on board, but was swamped by the tsunami after dropping off seven of them to their families. The five remaining children aboard the bus died.
Families of four of the five dead children filed a lawsuit with the district court against the operator of the kindergarten and its principal, demanding a total of 270 million yen.
The largest point of contention in the trial was whether the kindergarten was able to predict the occurrence of the giant tsunami.
In the hearings, the operator of the kindergarten insisted that it was impossible to predict such a large temblor as the Great East Japan Earthquake.
However, the court disagreed, saying in its ruling, “What the kindergarten should have predicted was not the occurrence of the earthquake but the damages from the post-quake tsunami.”
Citing the fact that tremors of up to a lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 continued for about three minutes and that a warning against a giant tsunami was broadcast on the radio and through other media, the court said, “It was possible for the kindergarten to predict the danger of tsunami and think that it should keep the children in its compound."
The ruling concluded that if the kindergarten gathered sufficient information through radio and other means, the lives of the children would not have been lost.
“We fought for these two years, believing that we were not wrong. The court approved our assertions,” said Yasuyuki Saijo, 45, who lost his second daughter, Harune, 6.
The families expressed hope that kindergartens and schools take sufficient safeguards to prepare for natural disasters.
“I cannot accept the view that it couldn’t be helped as it was a disaster that could occur only once in a thousand years," Saijo said. "I don’t want other people to have to suffer through the same grief as I have. We must create a society in which adults can firmly protect children.”
Toshitaka Katada, professor of engineering at Gunma University and an expert on disaster prevention measures, said, “If appropriate measures were taken, the children would not have lost their lives. But none of the staff members of the kindergarten wanted to see the children die.
“Unforeseen natural disasters take place. To prepare for them, each individual (adult) has to think about the best measures and how to protect lives,” he added.
Masanobu Kato, professor of the Civil Code at Nagoya Gakuin University, said the Sendai District Court's ruling is the "natural conclusion" to the families' lawsuit.
He said according to the ruling, the principal is responsible for sending the children on a bus from the kindergarten to the low-lying coastal area despite the tsunami warning.
"Immediately before that, the radio broadcast for disaster preparedness urged people to leave the coastal area and refrain from using vehicles for evacuating," Kato said. "But the principal paid no attention to the broadcast. There was fault in the principal’s judgment. I think that, legally, there is no room for the kindergarten to be spared responsibility.”