Mr. Yoshio Teraoka, Associate General Secretary of Kumamoto YMCA who has been serving at Sendai YMCA Volunteer Support Center as the first support staff arranged by the National Council of YMCAs of Japan from June through August, came to deliver messages from the students of Isshin Elementary School in Kumamoto to the children of Nobiru Elementary School in Higashimatsushima. He also brought a young staff member, Mr. Taishi Inomata to see the current situation of the Tsunami-affected areas by his own eyes to help boost the support effort at Kumamoto YMCA. On Wednesday 1/25, I took them to Nobiru Elementary
School at their newly built temporary school building in Higashi-matsushima.
Principle Ms. Kijima shared with us the current conditions and challenges of
the school, students, and their community, then took us to 2nd
grader’s classroom. When Mr. Teraoka handed the messages and drawings from the
2nd graders of Isshin Elementary School to the class leaders,
students came up with a lot of interesting questions about Kumamoto. They loved
the messages. After our visit, we went to the destroyed school building of
Nobiru Elementary School near coast, where the gym was the designated
evacuation center by city and over 100 people, students and the residents in
the community, lost their lives by tsunami gushed into the gym on 3/11. The 8
feet high water mark on the wall was still visible inside the gym. We also went
to see the coastal areas of Minami Sanriku-cho. Most of the debris removed and
buildings demolished, covered by fresh snow, the coastal towns and villages seemed
very clean. But, there is almost no sign of human activity except for many
construction equipments and dump trucks moving around, reminds us the
seriousness of the damage these communities had taken, and the long way ahead
for recovery. Yet, witnessing slowly growing lines of buoys for farming
Wakames, oysters, scallops, and silver salmon off shore in the bay, they are
telling us the town people’s strong will and sure steps for recovery.
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