Ookawa Primary School in Ishimaki, Miyagi, was swallowed by the huge tsunami. Mud water flew into even the second floor of the school building. Among the 108 pupils of the school, 31 have been confirmed safe, 21 were found dead, and 56 are still unaccounted for. Among the 11 teachers who were at the school, only one survived.
School bags found in the mud grounds were piled in the ruins of the school. Sueko Saito, who lost her daughter Miku (year 6) and son Takumi (year 3), found Miku’s photo among the items collected from the ruins of the school. “If the tsunami came one hour later, if I went to pick them up by car, if the earthquake had hit on Sunday… they wouldn’t have lost their lives, I cannot regret enough.”
The school was situated next to Kitagami-river. The tsunami went against the natural flow of the river for 5km and swallowed the children. The mud water covered over the roof of the two-storey building. The school had originally been designated as an evacuation centre, and was supposed to be a safe place.
When the tsunami struck, pupils wore helmets and were queuing in the ground. “They were calling names. They might have been preparing to move to a safer place.” said, a person who went to the school to pick up two grandsons before the tsunami.
The roads to the school were destroyed after the tsunami, and parents did not know what happed in the school on the night of the disaster. “We assumed that they were isolated, but safe.” Sueko Sato was thinking that her two children would come back next morning. “I felt sorry that I could not stay with the children in the cold dark night.” She could not sleep at all on the dark night. But the next day, bodies of pupils ware starting to be found. By 22nd, her daughter Miku was found up the hill, and son Takumi was found in the ground of the school.
Masatoshi Imano (54)and Mayumi (45) found their son Makoto (9) by themselves. Two days after the disaster, they were scraping out the mud covering the ground with troops of the Self Defence Guard when they found four children together who had lost their lives in the mud. One of them was Makoto.
A graduation ceremony was scheduled on 18th March (the new academic year start from April in Japan) and year 6 pupils were about to start a new life at junior high schools. Only 5 of the graduating pupils are confirmed safe, and many of their new uniforms were left without the children to wear and start new life with.
YouTube Video of the Ookawa Primary Schooｌ
Excerpt from the following articles;
http://mainichi.jp/select/weathernews/news/20110319k0000e040038000c.html as of 18 March, 2011
http://bioimpact.jp/blog/detail/68087 as of 25 March, 2011
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