Elementary school ruins in northeastern Japan restored as disaster memorial park (2)

Elementary school ruins in northeastern Japan restored as disaster memorial park (2)

The place where the Kamaya community existed was designated as a disaster-prone area after the disaster. Currently, land around the school ruins is entirely designated as a nonviable place to live. 

No houses and residents are seen around the school ruins, but visitors can see some land tracts near the school newly cultivated for farming. 

Lying just east of the school ruins is a 2.5-hectare olive tree field. Young olive trees are planted orderly in the field, managed by a company set up jointly by three local farmers. 

<Japan's northernmost olive tree project aimed at rehabilitating disaster-hit areas>

The olive tree growing project was launched by Miyagi Prefecture in 2014 as part of efforts to rehabilitate areas designated as uninhabitable places after the disaster. Kamaya is one of six locations selected for the project in the prefecture.

Edible olive oil began to be produced from the trees in 2019.  The volume of crop is still limited, but the produce from the fields is already shipped as extra virgin olive oil, said an Ishinomaki City official in charge of the project.

The undertaking is known as Japan's northernmost olive tree growing project. Kamaya is situated latitude 38 degrees 32 minutes north. 

Seen beyond the olive tree field is the back side of the school ruins, among them the collapsed corridor connecting the second-floor classrooms and the gym.

The series of efforts to resuscitate the tsunami-damaged areas in the city followed hard discussions between the city authorities and affected people, which led to a court battle involving the families of 23 dead Okawa Elementary pupils. 

A damages suit filed by the bereaved families against the city and the prefecture in 2016 focused on an allegedly poor knowledge about a school manual for evacuation among the school staff. 

The plaintiffs argued that because of the improper behaviors of teachers who were at the scene, the children and residents involved had to stay at the schoolyard for as long as over 50 minutes after the occurrence of the quake. 

A major tsunami warning had been issued to the Kamaya area soon after the tremor was felt at 2:46 p.m., and the tsunami is believed to have reached the school about 50 minutes later. This means that little time had been left before the children and others started evacuating from the school, led by the school staff. With her red satchel on the back, Hana was obviously among the evacuees there. 

The time when the tsunami reached the school can be seen with the classroom clocks recovered from the debris. One of those clocks, displayed at the memorial hall, had stopped at 3:37 p.m., indicating the wave began to engulf the school at that time. 

 

The argument by the plaintiffs was upheld by a first-instance court and by an appeals court again. The  plaintiffs finally won the case in 2018. 

The Okawa Elementary incident is said to be the worst case involving children sacrificed in a school-managed situation in Japan's postwar history.

<Okawa Elementary incident seen to be remembered in Japan's anti-disaster efforts from now on>

One community and its beloved elementary school vanished with a stroke of tsunami which had travelled 3.7 kilometers back from the river mouth. Many schoolchildren and their voices disappeared. 

Bereaved families and former residents of Kamaya as well as public-sector people, notably Ishinomaki City officials, underwent many twists and turns before reaching a bitter agreement on how to restore or use the damaged community and what to do in honor of the dead. 

Their hard memories are unlikely to be wiped out easily, but their experience should be remembered by people concerned all the time from now on, as Japan is determined to strengthen its anti-disaster systems and improve disaster prevention education for the public in the years ahead.

Elementary school ruins in northeastern Japan restored as disaster memorial park (1)

 

[Tsunami-hit areas in northeastern Japan region revisited] 2nd of 3-part series

September 11, 2023

Elementary school ruins in northeastern Japan restored as disaster memorial park 

The red school bag is displayed as part of tsunami disaster-related items at a memorial facility built near the Okawa Elementary School ruins in Kamaya, Ishinomaki City, northeastern Japan. The school bag was a belonging of Hana Suzuki, who was a fourth grader at the school, and it can be easily found as it is placed in a glass case at the entrance room of the Okawa Tsunami Memorial Hall.

The facility was opened in July 2021, 10 years and four months after the devastating earthquake and the ensuing tsunami waves hit widely scattered areas facing the Pacific in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011.

The schoolchild's bag, to be more precise, is a satchel to be strapped to the back. The bag, with textbooks, notebooks and utensils contained inside, was found from among the debris a few days after the school was engulfed and inundated by the tsunami, but the girl, its owner, was unaccounted for.

<Schoolgirl's belonging hoped to demonstrate importance of life>

Displayed along with the bag is a copy of a newspaper periodically issued for elementary school students, which contains a picture of a smiling Hana. 

Devoting its headline story to discussing her fate, the June 27, 2022, edition of the newspaper reports, "Here is a red satchel waiting for the return of its owner since that day 11 years ago." 

The bag had also contained a copy of a school schedule for March, the final month of the school year. The column of the eighth day in the schedule for March indicated the Okawa Elementary pupils had a meeting to see graduating sixth graders off that day. Hana's life was terminated three days later.  

Of the 108 pupils who were attending the school at that time, 70 children were killed and four others missing. The girl who owned the satchel was one of the four missing pupils. The tsunami also claimed the lives of 10 teachers and other school staffers.

The Suzukis, Hana's parents, had kept her satchel carefully, but as the disaster memorial hall was built, they decided to offer the item for display there, hoping that it will help remind visitors of the importance of life.

The site of the sad incident was restored as a disaster memorial park in a city-sponsored project launched in 2019. In the 3.3-hectare park, which is open throughout the year, visitors can see the ruins of unique school facilities such as round classrooms in the two-story building, a cylindrical multi-use assembly hall and an outdoor stage. 

Guided tour services, regularly or on demand, are provided by a group of bereaved families and a few citizens' groups. 

The Okawa Elementary pupils who survived the disaster moved to a makeshift school at a different school's grounds the following year. Then, Okawa Elementary was officially closed in 2018. 

For people hoping to reach Kamaya, where Okawa Elementary was located, a convenient public transportation service is not available. The nearest railway station is about 15 kilometers away. 

Kamaya, which is in the northeastern part of Miyagi Prefecture, appears to be a poorly populated community. So, a question frequently asked by visitors is why so fully furnished a school had been built there. 

Kamaya was a calm community, but the town was home to 496 people of 139 families, who had a lively time together whenever traditional seasonal events were held. That may be an answer to the frequently asked question. 

Pictures of the Kamaya community before and after the disaster are displayed along with other items and materials at the memorial hall.

Seen in the lower part of the two pictures taken around the disaster is a long bridge spanning Kitakami River flowing eastward (upward in the pictures) to the Pacific. 

The red, round building of Okawa Elementary is seen near the southern end of the bridge in the older picture, while the newer picture shows no building left in the area. 

The picture taken after the disaster shows the 560-meter-long truss bridge chopped halfway, indicating the strong power of the tsunami.

   

A main road in front of the school used to be lined by a post office, a clinic, a police box and many shops. But buildings and houses in Kamaya were completely washed away by the tsunami.