SENDAI--The Sendai High Court on April 26 ordered local authorities to pay 1.4 billion yen ($12.78 million) in damages to relatives of 23 schoolchildren who were killed in the 2011 tsunami.
In upholding a lower court ruling, the high court said missteps by the Miyagi prefectural government and the Ishinomaki municipal government had put the children in harm’s way after the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
The plaintiffs sought 2.3 billion yen from the governments.
Ishinomaki was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. At the public-run Okawa Elementary School located inland in the coastal city, 84 people died, including teachers.
The lawsuit centered on whether teachers at the school gave appropriate evacuation instructions to the children, whether the school was properly prepared for an emergency, and whether the city government had given adequate instructions to the school to prepare for a disaster.
The high court recognized failures on the part of school officials as well as the city board of education.
After the quake hit, the children at the school waited in the school playground for about 50 minutes at the instruction of their teachers.
They then headed to higher ground near an embankment of a river close to the school. But the tsunami breached the embankment and swept the children away.
The Sendai District Court in October 2016 ruled that teachers were at fault for not guiding the pupils to a nearby hill, only a two-minute walk from the school. It said teachers could see the tsunami seven minutes before it actually reached the school.
But the district court did not acknowledge negligence on the part of the city government concerning its disaster preparedness.
Both the plaintiffs and the local governments appealed the district court decision.
At the high court, lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued that officials during normal times should have reviewed the fitness of the emergency manual by taking into account the possibility of a tsunami striking the area. The lawyers said the failure to do so was an organizational error.
But the city government contended that officials could not foresee such a huge tsunami, and that the manual was adequate.