Lessons learned from the tsunami spawned by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake showed that even schools once thought to be safe havens were vulnerable, and some parents who could get their children to higher ground saved them.
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Okawa Elementary stands along a prefectural road near Shin-Kitakamiohashi bridge, about five kilometers from the mouth of the Kitakamigawa river. The two-story school building, where 108 students were enrolled, was a modern structure and supposedly safe from tsunamis.
Ironically, part of the school song goes, "Taiheiyo no Aoi Nami, Yosetekuru Nami" (Blue waves of the Pacific, waves that approach).
On March 11 at 2:40 p.m., the students were preparing to go home. Of the school's 13 teachers and clerical staff members, 11 were present at that time.
Among the school's fifth-graders was the second son of Nobuhiro Kimura, 37, who operates a local iron factory.
At 2:46 p.m., Kimura was in his office talking to the chairman of a company that has done business with his factory.
Then, a violent impact shook the ground. After the initial tremor, the shaking continued for a while. Many iron frames fell with a crash. Surprised by the big tremors, Kimura immediately jumped in his car and sped to his house, located between the school and his factory.
While he was driving his car along the river, he heard a radio report saying that a major tsunami warning had been issued, and he also noticed that the water level of the river was lower than usual. As the radio reported that the first wave of the tsunami had hit the neighboring town of Onagawa, Kimura felt a strong sense of ominous foreboding.
At his house, his eldest son, a junior high school student, had already come home earlier than usual because a graduation ceremony had been held that day. Taking his son, Kimura drove hurriedly to his other son's elementary school. While he kept his engine on, his eldest son jumped out of the car, rushed into the elementary school and got his younger brother. Immediately after starting to drive, Kimura saw something flying in front of him. It was a house, which flew from the side of the river to the opposite side, being carried by the tsunami.
City government employees were waving their arms near the bridge to instruct cars to head to a hill. Kimura turned the steering wheel and pressed harder on the gas pedal.
Several minutes before that, one of the city employees, Toshinobu Oikawa, 57, had been about a kilometer from the elementary school in the direction of the mouth of the river. When he looked to the front, he saw waves in the distance that were higher than the rows of pine trees on the beach that were at least 20 meters high.
"(The waves are) big," Oikawa thought. While driving his car, he urged residents through a loudspeaker to evacuate. Near the bridge, he stopped cars that were trying to go to the elementary school, and instructed them to head to the hill and higher ground. When he glanced at the river, a surge of black water was coming up it and swelling as if it was about to explode.
A fishing boat of about three tons being carried by the tsunami was approaching at the height of the riverbank. It was sliding along the embankment, and crashed into the bridge in front of Oikawa. He heard a sound like the echo of a huge waterfall.
When the wave of black water came closer to him, Oikawa turned and ran up a slope to the hill. The water that overflowed from the river near the bridge filled the lower-lying areas.
Immediately after that, the waves that had hit pine trees on the beach also neared Okawa Elementary School.
A male teacher, who was the only teacher who survived the tsunami that struck the school, later told his story to parents in a meeting held April 9 between school officials and relatives. The teacher and a few others, including parents who went to the school to get their children, were the only adults who knew what had happened just before the tsunami hit.
According to the teacher, the teachers all had confirmed in the schoolyard that all of their students were safe. However, some of the children were weeping. Others were feeling cold as they ran out barefoot in the snow.
The male teacher went back to the classrooms to confirm that no students remained and returned to the schoolyard. Then, he found that the students and the other teachers were trying to evacuate to higher ground on an embankment.
Then, he suddenly heard a loud sound followed by a gust of wind. The tsunami was rushing toward them along a road. After that, it engulfed the students.
Setsuko Takahashi, 60, who lives near the elementary school, was heading toward the schoolyard and saw the students walking in rows on a back road on the side of a hill.
"Follow the rows of the elementary school pupils," she told her 31-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old grandson, who were with her.
Immediately after that, she was engulfed by the brown water and managed to grab onto floating trees and a board. She was washed into a backwater area. She found a girl nearby, who was clinging to a piece of wood. While telling the girl, "Don't let go (of the wood)," she managed to climb onto a slope. A man who had fled to safety on the slope rescued the girl.
The elementary school was swallowed by a swirling muddy stream of water, and Takahashi was only able to see the upper part of the second floor of the school above the high water level. She could see neither the rows of students nor her daughter and her grandchild anywhere.
Four children made it to safety in the backwater. They were a first-grade girl and two fifth-grade boys from Okawa Elementary School and a male junior high school student. A total of 12 adults, including Takahashi and employees of the branch office of the city government, were also there.
The male teacher also survived along with a third-year boy of the elementary school on a different part of the slope.
Parents of all the elementary school students spent an anxious night while waiting on word about their children, as roads and all means of communication were disrupted. A rumor spread that the children had been saved at the school and all were safe. Some parents' minds were eased thinking that their children were staying there overnight, which also serves as an evacuation center.
The next day, however, parents began to get the tragic news. Officials of the local volunteer firefighters went to the elementary school in boats and found that the school building had been reduced to ruins. They also confirmed small bodies in the rubble around the school.
Of the 108 students at the elementary school, 64 were found dead and 10 were still missing as of April 9. That means that about 70 percent of the students became victims of the tsunami.
Many of the 34 students who survived had been taken by their parents in their cars to safety.
In the meeting held April 9, parents expressed their anger. One asked, "What did teachers do during the time between the earthquake and the tsunami?" Another demanded, "Give me back my child!" Another asked, "Is this a natural disaster or a disaster caused by humans?"
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, parents have been looking for their children's bodies around the school. The body of fifth-grader Chisato Shito, which was found March 12, was badly injured. As it was difficult to remove mud from the girl's eyes, nose and ears, her 45-year-old mother took it off by licking it with her tongue.
"I am not going to blame anyone. But my daughter was at the elementary school ... I am sad and I regret that," the mother said.
Miyuki Fukuda, 43, identified the body of her eldest daughter, Risa, a sixth-grader, three days after the quake. Her daughter's face was beautiful. The girl had been looking forward to wearing the traditional "hakama" pleated skirt at her graduation ceremony.
"She was smart and listened to other people's opinions well. Though she was my daughter, I often asked her for advice," Fukuda recalled.
Her eldest son, Masaaki, a third-grader, is still missing.
"He was handsome and was popular. He was my treasure. As he is small and frightens easily, I want to find him as soon as possible," she said.
Fukuda has been searching sites around the school each day searching for him, except for the day when Risa's body was cremated.
"Rather than looking for my son, I want to be with him. At that time (when he was hit by the tsunami,) was he weeping or was he strong? If I hear the answer, I may feel sad. But I want to know about his last moment," she said.
One after another, "randoseru," or school backpacks, covered with mud, were found around the school. They were for the moment lined up near the bridge. Sadly, they bear testimony to the tragedy of March 11, never to be carried again on the small backs of their owners.
Okawa Elementary School held its graduation ceremony on April 24, about a month later than usual, using a building of a different school, also located in Ishinomaki city.
About 50 family members of 16 six-graders who died or were still missing participated in the ceremony. Only five other six-graders survived and moved onto junior high school.
The graduation ceremony started at 10 a.m. in the Iinokawa Daiichi Elementary School, as participants observed a silent prayer for the dead children. Then, Okawa Elementary School Principal Teruyuki Kashiba read the names of the 16 students and handed their graduation certificates to their family members.
"We, teachers and clerical staff members, will make efforts so that such a sad thing like this will never take place again," Kashiba said.
(This story was written by Hajime Ueno, Chiaki Ogihara and Takuhei Minamide.)
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