On the day the Great East Japan Earthquake struck 13 years ago, Yoko Suzuki, 73, was the principal of Kadonowaki Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.
As the ground violently heaved, she gripped a desk with both hands for stability.
When the initial jolts subsided, she fled to the hill behind the school alongside children and teachers.
The three-story school building eventually became engulfed in flames, catching fire from burning homes and other debris that were being carried there by the tsunami.
Today, the government has designated the charred building as “earthquake memorial ruins.”
In the principal's office, a washed-up red school bag lies on dried mud. In a classroom for fourth-year students are the remains of rows of burnt-out chairs.
But when you look out the windows, there are hardly any scars from the disaster in sight. You see only the lawn of a tsunami memorial park stretching all the way to the sea.
Initially, many locals opposed the idea of preserving the destroyed building because it was “too painful to look at it.”
Suzuki completely understood their feelings, but she also pointed out to them, “The structure, itself, serves as a message to children of the future: When there is an earthquake, everyone must flee as fast as they can.”
I understand that many Hiroshima residents also did not want the Atomic Bomb Dome to be preserved at first.
Obviously, people with deep emotional scars need a long time to process them.
Kadonowaki Elementary School was finally opened to the public as a disaster memorial 11 years after the quake and tsunami.
When the siren wailed on March 11 as a requiem for victims of that disaster, many people must have stood still and prayed on the hill overlooking the sea, in front of a memorial monument or on the streets of the local entertainment district.
Suzuki joined her hands in prayer in front of the main gate of her old school.
A haiku she penned goes to the effect, “Standing before the school that was burned by the tsunami/ My ears hear the happy chattering of schoolchildren.”
Had her school not been closed by the disaster, it would have celebrated its 150th birthday this fiscal year.
There are no more children arriving every morning, but the school has been entrusted with a new mission.
--The Asahi Shimbun, March 12
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*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.