High school trips to Fukushima give real-life look at 3/11 disasters FUKUSHIMA--Before the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and the start of the nuclear crisis, Fukushima Prefecture was a popular draw for school trips, boasting an abundance of nature and onsen hot springs resorts. Now, more than three years later, schools are starting to send their students back to Fukushima to visit the disaster-stricken coastal areas and talk to survivors such as Teiko Kida, 65, a farmer in Iwaki. “I was glad that young people were interested in learning about the disaster,” Kida said. “I was encouraged to work toward reconstruction.” Kida talked with students from Fukuoka Prefectural Shuyukan Senior High School in Fukuoka, which sent all second-year students to Fukushima Prefecture from Jan. 8-9. Of the 365 students, 126 visited the hard-hit coastal areas of Iwaki and listened to first-hand accounts about the disasters. Kunichika Okuyama, the 58-year-old principal of Shuyukan Senior High School, said, “Unlike those survivors in Miyagi Prefecture, Fukushima Prefecture residents had to suffer from harmful rumors and evacuation due to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant accident. I believe students felt their resilience and kindness and love.” One male student told his peers, “We may face difficulties in the future, but I want you to be as strong as are those survivors in Fukushima Prefecture.” Prefectural employees have worked earnestly to win back the school trips and excursions, inviting the nation’s schools to come “see the real Fukushima, which is not explained in school textbooks,” as well as touting the safety there. According to the Fukushima Prefecture Tourism and Local Products Association, the number of elementary, junior and senior high schools and universities in prefectures outside Fukushima on “educational trips” plummeted from 4,779 in fiscal 2009 and 4,831 in fiscal 2010 to only 760 in fiscal 2011. Officials attribute the sharp drop to opposition from parents, who were worried about aftershocks or affected by rumors and news reports about the nuclear plant accident. Thanks partly to the effort by the association and hotel operators to attract school groups and tourism agencies, 1,592 schools, with about 150,000 students, came to the prefecture on educational trips in fiscal 2012. From the Kyushu region, including Fukuoka Prefecture, no high school group visited in fiscal 2011 and 2012, compared with 26 in fiscal 2009 and 37 in fiscal 2010. In fiscal 2011, all 50 high schools that had planned to come to Fukushima Prefecture canceled the trip. This fiscal year, which ends in March, 12 Kyushu high schools visited or will visit the prefecture for educational trips. On a recent trip, students from Nagasaki Nishi High School in Nagasaki listened to evacuees, including a couple who fled from Okuma in the evacuation zone of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. A female high school student said, “What we, residents in Kyushu, can do is not forget the fact that there are people still suffering from the disaster, and to tell what we have learned to the people around us.” Kenji Takushima, vice principal of Nagasaki Nishi High School, said, “Stories those local residents told us were different from what the news reports said. I am glad to have sent students there.” In an effort to attract schools for educational trips, the Fukushima prefecture tourism association and other organizations developed travel plans, distributed pamphlets, radiation dosage charts and exposure estimates. “Now is the only chance (for students) to see Fukushima working toward reconstruction,” said a tourism association official. We have been telling school officials that seeing disaster victims facing difficulties would give some hints as to when students have to row against the wind in the future.” The association officials said that they believe the number of school trips will increase this fiscal year. ajw.asahi/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201402010011
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 04:42:50 +0000
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