AIZU-WAKAMATSU, Fukushima Prefecture--Nobuyo Tada beamed at the sights and sounds of disaster-affected pupils swinging on playground equipment here, the result of a spur-of-the-moment comment she had made in Germany.
AIZU-WAKAMATSU, Fukushima Prefecture--Nobuyo Tada beamed at the sights and sounds of disaster-affected pupils swinging on playground equipment here, the result of a spur-of-the-moment comment she had made in Germany.
“I am filled with deep emotion,” the 62-year-old said in April on her first visit to Fukushima Prefecture.
The equipment at an interim elementary school in Aizu-Wakamatsu city was one of the gifts sent from Europe through a campaign led by Tada and her German husband, Degenhard von Twickel, 65, to support victims of the March 2011 disasters.
The interim school accepts children from two elementary schools in Okuma who fled their homes after the accident unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Tada, a native of Miyazaki Prefecture, flew to Germany in her early 30s to study music therapy. She met von Twickel there, and they now live in Billerbeck, a town of about 10,000 people, in the western German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
News reports of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster were broadcast in Germany, and local media descended on Tada in droves for interviews.
“We live in a small town, and I am the only Japanese resident,” she explained on April 22.
Tada recalled being gripped by a sense of urgency to help the victims.
“I want to help Japan. Please lend a helping hand,” Tada said during an interview on a radio show.
She said she had not planned to ask for assistance, but the words simply came out.
“I cannot explain well what was on my mind when I made that appeal, but I was thinking that I have to do something at any rate,” Tada said.
Although not prepared, her words had the desired effect.
A day after the broadcast, elementary school children who listened to the show began seeking cooperation from adults to help the devastated Tohoku region, a trend that spread throughout Billerbeck and the surrounding towns.
Von Twickel, an ardent participant in volunteer activities, and Tada’s friends and acquaintances joined forces. The combined effort collected about 7 million yen ($56,900) in donations.
Tada decided to use the money to help victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. She said she associated the accident with her father who was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945.
Through her friends, Tada learned that the coastal town of Okuma, which co-hosts the crippled nuclear plant, resumed classes at the interim school in Aizu-Wakamatsu in midwestern Fukushima Prefecture, but the school was short of educational materials.
The school incorporates the Ono Elementary School and the Kumamachi Elementary School, both run by the Okuma town government.
Tada resolved to present the swing, vaulting boxes, gymnastics mats, a jungle gym and other equipment to the children. The gifts arrived in Fukushima within a year of the disasters.
Tada had attempted to visit Fukushima Prefecture a few years ago, but poor health prevented her first trip there.
On April 22, she expressed the couple’s feelings for the children at the school. She interpreted for her husband, who cannot speak Japanese very well.
“We saw the future of the children. We want them to hold on to their hopes,” Tada said. “There are many Germans who will always remember and support them.”