OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--Students from this tsunami-ravaged town gathered on July 11 to make a video “arigato” message to the world that will be shown during the Closing Ceremony of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Holding red balloons, about 600 students from Otsuchi Gakuen lined up to form letters spelling “Thank you.”
Otsuchi was one of the towns along the coast of Iwate Prefecture that was inundated by the tsunami caused by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
A video camera on a drone flying overhead at a height of 65 meters captured the students as they expressed their appreciation to the world for the support extended to the Tohoku region after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami of five years ago.
"I am very happy that we were able to express our gratitude to the people of the world,” said Takehiro Nagai, 14, the student body president at Otsuchi Gakuen. “We wanted to show the world that we have overcome the difficulties from the disasters."
Twenty-seven schools from Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, which were the hardest hit by the disasters, as well as schools in Tokyo, will take part in the video project. In total, about 10,000 people will participate in the eight-minute video.
Being filmed by the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the 2020 Tokyo Games, the video will also feature segments in which participants will form letters to express their appreciation in French and Portuguese. The video will be shown during the Olympic flag handover ceremony on Aug. 21 during the Closing Ceremony of the Rio Games.