On Wednesday, September 11th, members of Kyoritsu Women's University visited the museum.
Kyoritsu Women's University signed a partnership agreement with Minamisanriku Town in 2019.
The town has undertaken a variety of initiatives, including the "One Day Restaurant" PBL (problem-solving class) program at Shizugawa Junior High School and Utatsu Junior High School in the town, which utilized local resources to solve problems, the Minamisanriku Town Fieldwork PBL Social Collaboration Program, and the provision of school cafeteria menus that use ingredients from Minamisanriku.
Click here to see the progress so far
This time, the group visited after participating in a "One Day Restaurant" event at Shizugawa Junior High School in the morning.
During your visit, you saw Learning Program 3: "Thinking about Life."
This program is broadly composed of three episodes: lessons learned from the relief felt by townspeople who fled to designated evacuation shelters along with many other local residents; how elementary and junior high school students at the time have lived since the disaster, their thoughts looking back on that day; and the process by which people in the fishing industry have risen from the depths of despair and are moving forward now. The program is not just about learning about the situation at the time of the disaster, but also about what people should value in their daily lives and "consider life" through the testimonies of townspeople who overcame the disaster.
In the Minamisanriku 311 Memorial learning program, participants are asked the question, "What would you do in this situation?"
In the third regular program, "Thinking about Life," questions were based on testimonies from townspeople who expressed regret over their actual evacuation behavior during the earthquake disaster, and the participating students engaged in dialogue while thinking about the reasons for their answers.
A distinctive feature of our learning program is that participants are given time to think together while watching the testimony footage and discussing the various questions posed.
After the tour of the facility, we asked the participants for their impressions.
"I wasn't able to see the learning program the last time I came, so I was finally able to see it this time. It was a thrilling experience, and the footage and interviews really conveyed the tension of those times and their thoughts about life."
"I was an elementary school student at the time and had only seen it on film. This was my first time visiting Minamisanriku, and I feel like there are many things you can't really appreciate unless you're there, like the former Disaster Prevention Center building. It was a good opportunity for me to face my own life."
During the "One Day Restaurant" held at Shizugawa Junior High School in the morning, the participants felt that the town was full of delicious ingredients. While Shizugawa Bay is blessed with the sea, it has also been subject to the threat of natural disasters, which have taken many things away from it. The town lives in harmony with the sea, and the richness and harshness of it all. It seems that the participants were able to experience both sides of the story during this visit.
Thank you very much to everyone at Kyoritsu Women's University for visiting us.