Okawa Elementary Stands like Bombed Church in Calmness
March 10, 2012
Okawa Elementary School of Kamaya in the northeastern part of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, was standing like a bombed church in a solemn atmosphere on a cloudy day late February. A few visitors were quietly posing like mourners before the damaged two-story schoolhouse with a unique round shape.
The elementary school is the theater of one of the saddest episodes in the tsunami disaster. The tidal waves climbed up from the sea through Kitakami River and killed 74 children and 10 school people, including teachers. The casualties were 70 pct of the total pupils and staff at the school.
The tsunami waves not only damaged the school building and an adjacent gym but also washed away many houses and facilities in the rural community including Kamaya, leaving hundreds of people dead or missing. A total of about 500 families were affected in the community and at present, about half of them live at temporary housing units at three separate sites in an inland area. The residents are basically inclined to relocate to safe places on higher land in groups, but they are divided on specifically where to relocate, according to a person with access to a local public office. Such higher land for relocation is limited in the area. Some elderly people even hope to return to their previous places despite the tsunami damage. But at least the school is unlikely to be rebuilt at the current place. "No parents hope to let them (the surviving children) go to the place any more," the person said. Most families in Kamaya have lived mainly on farming but also on different businesses, such as jobs at companies in urban areas.
Each community in the area had a fire and disaster brigade comprising local people. They had regularly practiced evacuation training, checking how to close a water gate to prevent a flood, but the training had not been joined by ordinary people, according to the person. “They just had not expected tsunami waves to surpass the river embankment.”
Kamaya is about 5 kilometers inside from the river mouth, but the area is largely on a low land. Actually, the compounds of Okawa Elementary are hemmed by the river embankment on the north and mountains on the east and the south. To the west, there is a road leading to the southern end of the bridge across Kitakami River. Led by teachers, the children were trying to escape to what local people call the “Triangular Area” by the southern end of New Kitakami Bridge, located about 200 meters west of the school, when the tide attacked them.
It is said that some people tried to escape to the highest possible place on the bridge itself because there were apparently no safer places. When considering the distance which can be reached with children on their foot, no fully safe place was seen to be available for them, said the person, who declined to be named. The mountain just behind the school has densely planted cedar trees and its slope is too steep for children to climb up. “It is difficult to say that the teachers’ judgment (that they should escape to the place near the bridge) was wrong,” the person said. The Triangular Area, which is higher than surrounding areas, was swollen by the waves later and the bridge itself was partially broken by the tide, which brought up many damaged objects like uprooted trees from downstream and had them hit the bridge girders. Survivors remained alive by running up the mountain desperately by themselves or being lifted up on the slope by the tide.
The episode at Okawa Elementary was much publicized throughout Japan. As a result, a monument and a bell in memory of the dead pupils were established at a place where the main gate to the school was believed to be, late last year. Beneath the monument were flowers and a lot of items, including toys and an old photo of the schoolhouse before the disaster. Almost nothing was heard around the deserted school building except the whispers of the visitors and the sounds of vehicles and trucks passing by.
The community had become rather impoverished before the mishap as Japan’s economy as a whole has been in the doldrums. The disaster may be an opportunity to rebuild the community, but plans for reconstruction are unlikely to be drawn immediately because the surviving residents remain split on what to do from now on, the person said.
The elementary school is the theater of one of the saddest episodes in the tsunami disaster. The tidal waves climbed up from the sea through Kitakami River and killed 74 children and 10 school people, including teachers. The casualties were 70 pct of the total pupils and staff at the school.
The tsunami waves not only damaged the school building and an adjacent gym but also washed away many houses and facilities in the rural community including Kamaya, leaving hundreds of people dead or missing. A total of about 500 families were affected in the community and at present, about half of them live at temporary housing units at three separate sites in an inland area. The residents are basically inclined to relocate to safe places on higher land in groups, but they are divided on specifically where to relocate, according to a person with access to a local public office. Such higher land for relocation is limited in the area. Some elderly people even hope to return to their previous places despite the tsunami damage. But at least the school is unlikely to be rebuilt at the current place. "No parents hope to let them (the surviving children) go to the place any more," the person said. Most families in Kamaya have lived mainly on farming but also on different businesses, such as jobs at companies in urban areas.
Each community in the area had a fire and disaster brigade comprising local people. They had regularly practiced evacuation training, checking how to close a water gate to prevent a flood, but the training had not been joined by ordinary people, according to the person. “They just had not expected tsunami waves to surpass the river embankment.”
Kamaya is about 5 kilometers inside from the river mouth, but the area is largely on a low land. Actually, the compounds of Okawa Elementary are hemmed by the river embankment on the north and mountains on the east and the south. To the west, there is a road leading to the southern end of the bridge across Kitakami River. Led by teachers, the children were trying to escape to what local people call the “Triangular Area” by the southern end of New Kitakami Bridge, located about 200 meters west of the school, when the tide attacked them.
It is said that some people tried to escape to the highest possible place on the bridge itself because there were apparently no safer places. When considering the distance which can be reached with children on their foot, no fully safe place was seen to be available for them, said the person, who declined to be named. The mountain just behind the school has densely planted cedar trees and its slope is too steep for children to climb up. “It is difficult to say that the teachers’ judgment (that they should escape to the place near the bridge) was wrong,” the person said. The Triangular Area, which is higher than surrounding areas, was swollen by the waves later and the bridge itself was partially broken by the tide, which brought up many damaged objects like uprooted trees from downstream and had them hit the bridge girders. Survivors remained alive by running up the mountain desperately by themselves or being lifted up on the slope by the tide.
The episode at Okawa Elementary was much publicized throughout Japan. As a result, a monument and a bell in memory of the dead pupils were established at a place where the main gate to the school was believed to be, late last year. Beneath the monument were flowers and a lot of items, including toys and an old photo of the schoolhouse before the disaster. Almost nothing was heard around the deserted school building except the whispers of the visitors and the sounds of vehicles and trucks passing by.
The community had become rather impoverished before the mishap as Japan’s economy as a whole has been in the doldrums. The disaster may be an opportunity to rebuild the community, but plans for reconstruction are unlikely to be drawn immediately because the surviving residents remain split on what to do from now on, the person said.
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