ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Nearly four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, discussion of the fate of a damaged school building that was engulfed by the tsunami finally started between a residents' association and the bereaved families of students.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Nearly four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, discussion of the fate of a damaged school building that was engulfed by the tsunami finally started between a residents' association and the bereaved families of students.
Consideration of the building's future has been delayed until now, with many bereaved parents saying it is still too poignant to even look at the gutted shell of Okawa Elementary School.
However, Mitsuhiro Sato, 53, who lost his son in the disaster, said that the building should be preserved.
"The school building is one of the most precious reminders of the disaster,” he said. “Like the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima is now regarded as a symbol of a human hope for peace, we hope to preserve the building to hand down the memories of the heinous calamity and make it a good lesson when we think of the safety of school structures.”
During its meeting with the bereaved families on Jan. 17, the association for recovery of the Okawa district proposed three plans for dealing with the devastated main building of Okawa Elementary School.
Eighty-four students and teachers were killed when the school was engulfed by the massive tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The three proposals are for the city government to preserve a major portion of the building as a reminder of the disaster; preserve only a portion of the structure; or dismantle the building.
In addition to the three proposals, the city and the residents’ recovery association have proposed a plan to build a public garden at the site of the school to pay tribute to the victims.
In the garden, a mound as high as the height of the tsunami spawned by the quake will be created with a cenotaph on its top, according to the city office.
Some parents of the deceased students have argued that the terrain surrounding the school should also be preserved.
It is believed that students could have survived the disaster if they had escaped to a natural mound in the back of the campus, and preserving the entire area will leave a good lesson for the future, the parents say.
Voices calling for the building’s preservation have been growing since last year, as seen in the start of a campaign by some of the school’s former students demanding it be preserved.
(This article was written by Shunichi Kawabata and Hironori Kato.)