Photo/Illutration Woodwork artist Shinichi Endo, far right, and the family of Taylor Anderson pose behind a bookshelf for the Taylor Bunko reading corner donated to Mangokuura Elementary School in September 2011 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The parents of an American teacher who died in the 2011 tsunami continue to realize her long-held dream of serving as a bridge between Japan and the United States.

Taylor Anderson was a 24-year-old assistant language teacher under the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, when the tsunami spawned by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake struck the coast of the Tohoku region.

Anderson was believed to have been engulfed in the waves when she was returning home after she and other teaching staff members at the municipal-run Mangokuura Elementary School took the pupils to safety.

Her parents in September 2011 set up the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund with the purpose of opening a reading corner at Mangokuura Elementary School featuring a bookshelf and English-language children’s publications.

The Taylor Bunko reading corner, as it was named, has now been introduced at more than 20 institutes, including elementary and junior high schools in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures.

The next Taylor Bunko is scheduled for completion in April within the library of Randolph-Macon College in the U.S. state of Virginia, where Taylor had studied.

The college is expected to provide titles catering to Japanese-language students in gratitude for Taylor and to pass down its deep bonds with Japan to posterity.

Taylor arrived in Ishinomaki in 2008.

“Taylor loved novels, manga and other Japanese cultural productions,” said Maiko Abe, 40, who was a close friend of the teacher. “She was actively engaged in festivities and local events, so everyone was very fond of her.”

RELIEF FROM GRIEF

Shinichi Endo, 53, a woodwork artist in Ishinomaki, will build a bookshelf made of Japanese red pine timber for the Taylor Bunko in Randolph-Macon College.

After Endo’s three children were killed in the tsunami, he thought, “My life no longer has any meaning.”

During his despair, Taylor’s parents asked him to make the first bookshelf.

He has since committed himself to making all of the bookshelves for the reading corners because his three children were among Taylor’s pupils.

Endo and his wife plan to attend the ceremony in late April to mark the opening of the reading corner in Randolph-Macon College.

“I have been able to live on until now thanks to Taylor Bunko,” Endo said. “I will sincerely devote myself to producing a quality bookshelf this time, too.”

Also in spring, a stone monument will be installed at the Ishinomaki Minamihama Tsunami Memorial Park in Ishinomaki in commemoration of Taylor, who contributed to the deepened interactions between Japan and the United States.

“Taylor was unsure of what she would do next after her JET experience, but knew she wanted to continue her work with Japan in some way,” her father said. “She hoped to be a bridge between the U.S. and Japan.

“We are eternally grateful to the Endos ... and so many others for making this a reality.”

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