ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--A signboard on which students painted "Ganbaro! Ishinomaki" (Let’s try hard! Ishinomaki) in huge letters has been placed in an area of this city that was leveled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami to help inspire rebuilding efforts.
The new sign, made of plywood and measuring 2 meters in height and 11 meters in length, was put up April 11 and replaces an older one that carried the same slogan.
Members of the art club of nearby Kadonowaki Junior High School worked on the lettering of the new sign during their spring break.
April 11 marks five years and one month since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami ravaged the region.
The death toll from the tsunami totaled 541 here in the Kadonowaki and Minamihama districts of Ishinomaki.
The old sign had to be removed because it stood in an area where a road is to be constructed. It was created by Kenichi Kurosawa, 45, a resident of Kadonowaki, who ran a waterworks shop.
He put the sign up a month after the March 11, 2011, disaster. It was placed where his home and shop used to stand before the tsunami swept them away.
Kurosawa sought to cheer up his devastated neighbors with the sign.
It turned into a lot more with people using it as a place to lay flowers and offer prayers for those who lost their lives in the disaster.
“We intend to relay to younger generations our desire for continuing to commemorate the dead and pass down the lessons we learned from the disaster,” he said after the new sign was installed.
A park will be built where the new sign stands as part of rebuilding projects in stricken areas carried out by the central, prefectural and municipal governments.