Ms. YS (a woman in her 60’s) Ｙ．Ｓ ６０代

July 27, 2016 It’s important to have awareness of disaster prevention on a regular basis. It’s important to have a creative education with a focus on children after reviewing the old education system which encourages just memorizing. When I was young, I thought of becoming a teacher was too difficult for the task at hand. I respected teachers. After graduating collage, I worked for an accounting department of a company for a year and half. One day, when I was using an abacus, my ears heard ringing of a school bell. Then I quit my job and became a substitute teacher. When I wanted to get more involved with children, the school principal advised me to become a full time teacher. Three girls who were alienated in school directly appealed to the principal that I should have been a teacher. The children mediated my career. I appreciated my husband as a good partner supporting my work. While having a threatened miscarriage and raising a child were challenging, I was fully motivated to take on advices from many seniors and learn from great teachers. I ran the school with a focus on designing classes and events. It’s a safety education to protect own life. Teachers were united and communicated well, and I believe we made a good group of assembly with a whole school. When we changed the guidance plan, we could see that the children were changing as a result. This is a school that offers a place for children to be lively, while we tried to change the parents’ way of thinking as well in order to take care of the children together. On 3.11, we just followed a usual evacuation drill. Teachers and children were taking these routine drills quite seriously. We knew with certainty that a powerful earthquake was coming some day, so we had safety education. It’s an everyday effort to walk the hallway quietly, line up quickly at morning meetings and school assemblies and listen to what teachers have to say. I did this with the limited time of three years until my retirement but spent more and more time for this purpose. I passed on a Zen phrase “Cherry blossoms smile in the spring wind as in the past” to children at the meeting on 3.11 and told them that they had to accept the hardships and continue to live. I tried to become a teacher who creates good things and enlighten hearts with clear vision of bringing up utmost of the children and a desirable school as a school principal. I might have been influenced by my father. I treasured the encounter and relationship while overcoming the obstacles by accepting them. My 33 years of teaching was full of learning experiences from the children. I appreciated the children because our teachings were mutual. Good classes nurture the ability to make decisions by thinking and expressing, stopping and looking back. One child who moved to Kobe after the disaster told me about a teacher who shouted “Come up!” and desperately protected him. I want to preserve the school building that had been damaged as remains of the disaster. On 3.11, I heard Tsunami warning sirens in the schoolyard. With a split- second decision, I quickly evacuated to a higher ground with 230 children. Locals evacuated together, and we adults were also saved by the children. Later, we opened a safe that was at the school with a blowtorch and took out graduation diplomas that were stored there for the upcoming graduation ceremony. The children born in the year of the disaster are now the first graders at elementary school. I want to carry out my mission to tell and pass on the facts. I wonder how harrowing it was for the teachers who lived through the wars. They were tough, weren’t they? We also must survive natural disasters.