On January 18th, third-year students from Shizugawa High School, the only high school in Minamisanriku Town, visited the Minamisanriku 3/11 Memorial.
This is part of the "Learning about Minamisanriku Hometown" course that is held every year. Normally, disaster prevention lessons such as lectures on the earthquake disaster are held at the high school, but since the memorial opened in October last year, this year the students took part in the learning program at our museum.
At the start of the program, Mayor Sato Jin spoke to the town of Minamisanriku about the actual damage caused by the earthquake, the progress of the 11 years of recovery, and the purpose of establishing the facility: "To pass on the disaster history, disaster prevention education, and gratitude."
This time, we have seen Regular Program 2, "Can we protect lives at that time?" In this program, junior high school students and students at Shizugawa High School at the time of the earthquake talk about their experiences of the disaster, what they felt from it, and what they think now that 11 years have passed.
Many students were surprised to see the actions taken by their seniors and the events currently occurring at the school they themselves attend, but at the same time, they also seemed to realize that even high school students can achieve something by utilizing their training and experience.
Since opening on October 1st of last year, we have seen an increasing number of schools using the facility, including those in the local Minamisanriku town. In November of last year, third and sixth graders from Shizugawa Elementary School took part in a learning program as part of their disaster prevention studies, and we have received reservations from several other elementary schools for the future.
We believe that one of the roles of the Minamisanriku 311 Memorial is to pass on the experiences of Minamisanriku to the local children who were born and raised in Minamisanriku, as well as to children of generations who do not know about the disaster. Seeing the children of generations who do not know about the disaster seriously trying to learn gave us a renewed sense of determination to do what we can, one thing at a time, carefully, together with the local community.
Thank you very much for visiting us.