On the last day of program activities, we had one of the most upsetting parts of the trips. We visited the Okawa elementary school. Okawa elementary school is about an hour outside of Sendai. Okawa elementary school was tragically struck and destroyed by a tsunami caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. 74 out of the 78 students were present died at the event, and 10 out of the 11 teachers died as well. Instead of running up the nearby hill, students were instructed to run up the river, where the tsunami came from.
At the school, we had a storyteller. She told us details about the school. She also had pictures of the school before the tsunami. It was unsettling looking at the before pictures and seeing the after damage in person. We started the tour at the front gate of the school. There used to be a wall surrounding the school, but it was washed away by the power of the tsunami. We then went around into the schoolyard and saw the back of the school. The back was destroyed by not only the tsunami, but also opened up by construction workers to look inside. We then made our way up the nearby hill where four students and one teacher ended up surviving. It was haunting trying to image what all the water and destruction looked like. Professor Ibaraki told me at the top of the hill that water came from the river and also from another direction from the ocean. The school was placed at the intersection of these two waves, creating even more destruction there.
While we were walking around the grounds, the story teller told us about the legal battle the parents of the students went through to get answers about what happened. The city tried to cover up what happened, since they could be held liable for the lack of preparation. In order for the law suit to go through, they had to name a price for their child’s life, which is horrifying to me. I could not imagine the pain of having the name a price for your child.
