Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi--Local residents have described their horror at seeing primary school children being swept away by tsunami on March 11.
About 70 percent of the 108 students enrolled at Okawa Primary School in Ishinomaki were killed or have been missing since the quake-triggered tsunami hit.
The children were evacuating as a group to higher ground when they were engulfed by a wave that roared up the Kitakamigawa river.
The school is located on the banks of the river--the largest river in the Tohoku region--in the Kamaya district of the city, about four kilometers from where the river flows into Oppa Bay.
According to the Ishinomaki municipal board of education, 64 of the school's students died, and 10 are missing. Nine of the 11 teachers who were at the school on the day died, and one is missing.
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Decision time
Shortly after the earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m., the students left the school building, led by their teachers. The principal was not at the school at the time.
Some of the children were wearing helmets and classroom slippers. A number of parents had arrived at the school to collect their kids, and some of the children clung to their mothers, crying and wanting to rush home, according to witnesses.
At 2:49 p.m., a tsunami warning was issued. The disaster-prevention manual issued by the municipal government simply says to go to higher ground in case of tsunami--choosing an actual place is left up to each individual school.
Teachers discussed what action to take. Broken glass was scattered through the school building, and there was concern the building might collapse during aftershocks. The mountain to the rear of the school was too steep for the children to climb.
The teachers decided to lead the students to the Shin-Kitakami Ohashi bridge, which was about 200 meters west of the school and higher than the nearby river banks.
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Horrific sight
A 70-year-old man who was near the school saw students leaving the school grounds, walking in a line. "Teachers and frightened-looking students were passing by right in front of me," he said.
At that moment, an awful roar erupted. A huge torrent of water had flooded the river and broken its banks, and was now rushing toward the school.
The man began to run toward the mountain behind the school--the opposite direction from where the students were heading.
According to the man and other residents, the water swept up the line of children, from front to back.
Some teachers and students at the rear of the line turned and ran toward the mountain. Some of them escaped the tsunami, but dozens could not.
Disaster-scenario projections had estimated that, if a tsunami were to occur as a result of an earthquake caused by movement along the two faults off Miyagi Prefecture, water at the river mouth would rise by five meters to 10 meters, and would reach a height of less than one meter near the primary school.
However, the March 11 tsunami rose above the two-story school building's roof, and about 10 meters up the mountain to the rear.
At the base of the bridge, which the students and teachers had been trying to reach, tsunami knocked power poles and street lights to the ground.
"No one thought tsunami would even reach this area," residents near the school said.
According to the local branch office of the municipal government, only one radio evacuation warning was issued.
The branch office said 189 people--about one-quarter of all residents in the Kamaya district--were killed or are missing. Some were engulfed by tsunami after going outdoors to observe the drama; others were killed inside their homes.
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Shattered parents
In all of Miyagi Prefecture, 135 primary school students were killed in the March 11 disasters, according to the prefectural board of education. More than 40 percent of those children were students at Okawa Primary School.
A body believed to be that of one of the school's missing students was found on Friday.
Many parents are still searching the area near the school for clues to their children's whereabouts.
In response to parents' desire to know more about what happened on the day, an information meeting was held at Iinogawa No. 1 Primary School, near Okawa Primary School, on Saturday. A total of 97 relatives of dead or missing students and teachers attended the meeting.
Teruyuki Kashiba, principal of Okawa Primary School, and a male teacher who was the only one of the 11 teachers working that day to survive, explained the events of March 11.
At first, the plan was that only Kashiba would speak, but the teacher volunteered to address the room. "I'd like to explain things personally to the parents," he said at the meeting, according to witnesses.
The meeting began with all attendants offering a silent prayer.
Yoshimasa Konno, secretariat chief of the municipal board of education, said: "We're very sorry for losing so many precious lives at the school, where safety should be assured. We apologize for our inability to do more for bereaved family members."
(Apr. 13, 2011)
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