2014年12月 – Children's Express

by Mio Sakamoto (11)

It is almost three and half year since March 11, what a memorable day. At 9.0 on the Richter scale, maximum seismic intensity at 7, the earthquake hit in the east Japan. It named “The Great East Japan Earthquake.” This earthquake caused a huge tsunami and drowned towns at Sanriku coast. I went to those damaged areas, Ishinomaki and Onagawa on August 16^th. The aim was to learn how the damaged areas look like from the children who live there. I conducted an interview for Children Reporters who work at The Kids Media Station at Ishinomaki.

First of all, I visited Hiyoriyama Park, Ishinomaki Port, Minato Elementary School and Onagawa Regional Medical Center (the old Onagawa town hospital.) Since Hiyoriyama Park is located at height, we could see a panoramic view of Ishinomaki city from there. There were landscape pictures taken before the earthquake posted in places. To compare with those pictures, it is clear that city landscape was dynamically changed. Buildings in the town disappeared sharply, resulting in almost vacant land in Minamihama Area and Kadonowaki Area. Sandbanks in Old Kitakami River got smaller than before because the tsunami flushed it out. A half destroyed building is still remained at Ishinomaki port. It was a pitiful sight.

Owing to the earthquake, Minato Second Elementary School (closed in 2013) unified to Minato Elementary School. On the site of Minato Second Elementary School, there were stone monuments commemorating closure of the school.

Although Onagawa Regional Medical Center was built at 18 meters height from the ground, the first floor of the building was flooded about 2 meters when the tsunami came. We saw many signs which indicate “tsunami attained at this point of height.” Also, small temporary housings still remain there. There were many things I couldn’t realize without going there.

After that, I visited children reporters in general incorporated association Kids Media Station to ask about the earthquake. Kids Media Station is an organization, publishes “Ishinomaki Hibi Kodomo Shinbun.”

When I asked how he felt when the earthquake happened, Ren Yaegashi (first year in Ishinomaki middle school) said “At that time, I was in fourth year in elementary school. So I was in school and I worried about my family members.”

Questioned about what he wants the town to be in the future, Hiroki Matsubayashi (first year in Hebita middle school) said “Since the tsunami hit our town, we could play only inside. I would like there to be more playgrounds” Also, according to Hinako Kimura (third year in Kadonowaki middle school), “After the earthquake, many stores in a shopping arcade were closed and became empty. So I hope stores would be opened again and become more bright.” Ren Yaegashi said “the stores are concentrated in the suburb area, I would like to make central area livelier.” Their opinions were mainly about town surroundings that have hugely changed from the tsunami.

When I was asking about whether the status quo of the city gradually approaches to their ideal, Yuuko Sakai (sixth grade in Kadonowaki elementary school) indicated that “It is approaching to the ideal. However, I don’t think the town became the ideal yet.” Ayaka Abe (sixth grade in Hebita elementary school) said “Minamihama area where Kadonowaki elementary school used to be there is now almost vacant area. The tsunami flushed almost everything out, there is grass only remained right now. That place is very dark because there are no lights, so I want to make that place brighter.” Hearing their answers, it seemed the area hasn’t recovered from the disaster or reached to the standard before.

With children reporters of Kids Media Station.

What do they want people in other places to do is “I would be happy to if people in Japan will pay more attention to our town Ishinomaki and read “Ishinomaki Hibi Kodomo Shinbun.” On the one hand, there are reporter specified opinions there but on the other hand, there were opinions such “I hope many people will visit Ishinomaki and exchange with us.” (Kimura) or “I want the population of the visitors to increase than now. I would like them to know more about the earth quake.” (Abe). As stated above, there were many wishes for people to visit Ishinomaki.

Finally, I asked are there any lessons from the earthquake for people in Japan. Yaegashi said “People in Ishinomaki became more prepared for disasters than before. So, I would like people in other areas to be prepared for disasters.” Hinako Kimura also said “Since we can’t predict when earthquakes happen, I strongly recommend preparing for those unforeseen happenings.” Sakai indicated “It would be better to think about how to manage and survive from the earthquake on daily basis.” They told us their lessons from the earthquake.

As I visited in Ishinomaki, I felt an atmosphere which I couldn’t gain only watching documentaries or news through a screen. Also, I noticed there were many things I could never know as long as I could ask them who survived from the earthquake directly. If more people know about the earthquake by visiting the spot, it would be helpful for people to prepare for earthquakes whose epicenter is directly below Tokyo or Nankai Trough earthquake. To gain more knowledge about earthquakes will prevent people and cities from damaging.

by Kanato Matsumoto (15)

At noon on the third day of the “International Youth Media Summit” 2014, I was in an orientation session where each group consisting of seven students introduced themselves. I felt like whimpering in the middle of my presentation because of my poor English. I could not talk about myself fluently like other members.

Many times I was at a loss for words and said I was sorry. Then they encouraged me patiently to continue my speech and told me they did not judge me by my English level and I did not have to apologize. After I listened to those words, I started to say “Thank you” instead. Those words gave me the courage to speak English for the rest of the summit.

This event, the 9^th International Youth Media Summit took place in US Soka University campus in Southern California from July 14 to 27^th, 2014. Around 80 young people from 22 countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Palestine and Kosovo participated in the event. They were divided into seven groups and each group was assigned one of these topics: discrimination, poverty, violence, health, environment, women’s rights and youth empowerment.

I joined the young people’s status group. Other member students were from Armenia, Slovenia, Kosovo, United States, Mexico and Nigeria. First we presented problems relating to the young people’s status in their home countries, shared information and then discussed the solutions. A Nigerian girl told that many young people in her country could not choose what they wished to do due to financial constraints and social status. Everyone agreed that was also the case in their own countries.

Our mission was to make a one-minute video clip. Each member picked a video as their example and shared them with the other members. Then we discussed what our theme should be and how to create it. We finally decided to title our work “EVERY TALENT HAS ITS POWER” aiming to motivate young people to believe in their own talents and pursue their chosen way even if they feel hesitant to do it.

We shot our video on the university campus. Everyone was given a particular role such as producer, director, etc. and also received necessary training for our roles from professional experts. I was in charge of gaffer, controlling the light level in a scene using the light and a reflection board. This was a new skill for me. I had never experienced this kind of workshop before. I was amazed that the other members understood their roles quite well and were surprisingly skilled at video creation. Sometimes we disagreed with each other but ultimately always reached a reasonable resolution after discussion and listening to each other. Japanese people tend to withdraw their opinion before even making efforts to listen to others when they confront a different point of view. I felt this type of interaction was something the Japanese could learn from. We were all delighted when we finished editing and completed our film.

Another mission was to draft a declaration. Everyone composed an essay to discuss problems in their countries and propose solutions. One declaration from each group would be nominated for recording and would be also shown together with the group video work. The declaration I wrote was selected from our group. I asked parents and teachers to use more encouraging words to children. I practiced my English pronunciation very hard and spent much time preparing while receiving support from others for the recording. When my declaration and our video were presented in the closing ceremony, we were all filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment.

What I realized by the end of the summit was that at the beginning, we all came with many worries but by the end we all successfully worked as a team and produced a video by exchanging our ideas. I learned that when we are confronted with challenges, the key to success is to jump right in and try it. When watching arguments that occurred within the groups, it made me feel that people are basically the same no matter where they come from. Most of the disagreements were a result of clashes between different cultural values and strong feelings by participants of wanting to change that.　　This summit brought many young people from various sets of circumstances, different views on issues. By having participants work on joint projects, it provided them an opportunity to be able see things from a more global perspective. Having spent my time among those who are able express their ideas very well and listen to others, I learned the importance of being able to assert one’s opinions. For that, I feel I must work hard to raise my level of English.