SENDAI--A district court here on Oct. 26 awarded more than a billion yen to bereaved family members of elementary school students killed in the 2011 tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
In total, 74 students and 10 teachers at Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, either died or are still listed as missing in the tragedy.
In its ruling, the Sendai District Court said that teachers at Okawa Elementary could have foreseen that a massive tsunami would hit the school because an Ishinomaki government vehicle passed near the campus warning local residents that a tsunami was approaching and urging them to flee to higher ground.
The court concluded that school officials were negligent in not evacuating the students to a hillside at the back of the school where there would have been a greater chance of escaping the deadly waves.
Bereaved family members of 23 students sought 2.3 billion yen ($22 million) in compensation from the Miyagi prefectural and Ishinomaki municipal governments. They argued that the local governments could have foreseen that a tsunami could reach the elementary school.
The Sendai District Court awarded the plaintiffs about 1.4 billion yen in compensation.
On March 11, 2011, students at Okawa Elementary were in the middle of an event at the end of the school day when the magnitude-9.0 quake struck northeastern Japan. About 50 minutes later, students began walking from the school grounds for higher ground near a bridge spanning the Kitakamigawa river when the tsunami engulfed them.
Plaintiffs argued that the radio disaster prevention broadcast was heard within the school grounds warning about a large tsunami. In addition, parents who had come to pick up their children had conversations with teachers about evacuating to the hillside. Plaintiffs used such factors to argue that school officials were negligent in allowing the pupils to leave in a different direction.
City and prefectural government officials argued that school officials could not have foreseen that the school would be hit by a tsunami because Okawa Elementary was not included in the area assumed to be a possible flood zone in a tsunami. Additionally, the school had been designated as an evacuation center for local residents in the event of a tsunami.