[Group Report] Ishikawa Prefectural Terai High School Students Participate in the "Storyteller Learning Program"

On September 25th, students from Ishikawa Prefectural Terai High School visited Minamisanriku Town and took part in a "Storyteller-led Learning Program."

The "Learning Program by Storytellers" that the participants took this time is a tour program for groups that has been offered by the Minamisanriku Town Tourism Association since 2011, shortly after the earthquake, and combines a lecture on the earthquake disaster with a tour of the town by bus.

This experiential learning program involves listening to the stories of victims and actually visiting the disaster-stricken areas. Participants will hear about the state of the town before the disaster, the extent of the damage, and the storytellers' own experiences and current feelings.

The teachers said that they chose Tohoku as their destination for the purpose of learning about the earthquake disaster, but after deciding on the itinerary, the Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred on January 1st. Because of this, the teachers said, "In addition to thinking about the issues and lessons learned immediately after the disaster, we also want to think about what role we can play in the reconstruction process."

First, we will hear a lecture on the earthquake disaster from Keiji Sato, who was a second-year high school student in 2011.

He talks about how his family evacuated to different locations within town when the disaster occurred, how he dealt with evacuees at the Shizugawa Youth Nature Center where he was at the time of the earthquake, and what his grandfather told him when he decided to take over the family business in Minamisanriku Town.

Furthermore, Sato, who was a high school student at the time, not only reflected on his experience of the earthquake disaster, but also talked about his own perspective on the reconstruction and urban development of Minamisanriku Town, including what he felt when he saw the confused adults in front of him and why he is now working in his hometown.

After the lecture, the "bus storytelling" event will begin, where participants will travel by bus to the disaster-stricken sites in the town and listen to storytellers.

Leaving the lecture venue, the group toured the former Togura Junior High School, where a 22-meter tsunami reached, and the Earthquake Reconstruction Memorial Park, where the former Disaster Prevention Building where 43 people were killed remains.

While seeing the real threat of the tsunami and hearing about the conditions in the evacuation centers, they also saw with their own eyes the fact that the lives they had taken for granted, such as the school they attended with their friends and the time just before their graduation ceremony in March, were suddenly lost.

Today, the former Disaster Prevention Office can be seen looking down from the area where the 311 Memorial and Minamisanriku San San Shopping Street are located. Standing next to it, you can get a real sense that the town before the earthquake was spread out over the same amount of land as the former Disaster Prevention Office.

In addition to what was discussed in the lecture, by actually visiting the disaster area, the students were able to gain a deeper understanding of post-earthquake urban development and disaster prevention.

After the class, we asked the students for their impressions.

"Seeing the former Togura Junior High School and the former Disaster Prevention Center, I was able to imagine what it was like at the time and get a real sense of how terrible the disaster must have been. Noto is also in a difficult situation, so I would like to make use of what I have learned today in disaster prevention efforts in the future."

"I remember a storyteller standing next to the government building telling me, 'You must first protect your own life, and only then can you protect the lives of others.' During the talk, there was a story about high school students who responded at evacuation centers, which gave me time to think about what I could do."

The Noto Peninsula earthquake that occurred on January 1st, and the heavy rain disaster that occurred just the other day.

For the students who live in Ishikawa Prefecture, which also shares a border with the Noto Peninsula, which has been hit by successive natural disasters, we hope that what they thought and realized in Minamisanriku Town, and what they felt while walking around the area, will inspire their awareness of disaster prevention and bring about changes in their daily lives.

Thank you to everyone at Ishikawa Prefectural Terai High School for coming.