Photo/Illutration Visitors view the tsunami-hit former building of the Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in April. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Supreme Court upheld a ruling ordering two local governments to pay about 1.44 billion yen ($13.3 million) in compensation to the families of 23 children who were killed in the 2011 tsunami.

In the ruling dated Oct. 10, the top court’s First Petty Bench rejected the appeal filed by the Ishinomaki municipal government and the Miyagi prefectural government.

The decision finalizes the Sendai High Court’s order for the two governments to pay compensation for the failure of Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, to take disaster prevention measures that could have saved lives in the tsunami spawned by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

According to the rulings of the Sendai District Court and Sendai High Court, students and teachers at Okawa Elementary School remained at the school grounds for about 50 minutes after the magnitude-9.0 quake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011.

They then proceeded to higher ground near the Kitakamigawa river, but the tsunami swept through the area at 3:37 p.m.

As a result, 74 children and 10 teachers were killed or were listed as missing.

In March 2014, the bereaved families of 23 children filed the lawsuit, seeking about 2.3 billion yen in compensation from the Ishinomaki and Miyagi governments.

The Sendai District Court ruled that around 3:30 p.m., when Ishinomaki city government trucks with loudspeakers called on residents to evacuate, the teachers at Okawa Elementary School knew that a major tsunami could strike.

The district court ordered the Ishinomaki and Miyagi governments to pay about 1.43 billion yen in compensation, ruling that the teachers were negligent in carrying out their responsibility to safely evacuate the students.

However, the district court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the school’s disaster prevention measures were insufficient.

The Sendai High Court overturned this decision by pointing out that Okawa school officials should have revised the manual for dealing with natural disasters by the April 2010 deadline set by the Ishinomaki board of education and designated an evacuation route and destination.

The high court also said the board of education was obliged to correct inadequacies in the school manual and said the deaths of the children could have been prevented if the appropriate steps had been taken.

The high court increased the compensation amount to the bereaved families by about 10 million yen.