Photo/Illutration Okawa Elementary School in April 2011, a month after the tsunami swept through the area in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

I visited Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, where 74 pupils and 10 teachers perished in the tsunami of March 11, 2011.

My eyes took in a connecting corridor that had collapsed seaward, its support pillars bent out of shape; conspicuously buckled and warped floors; and a clock that had stopped at 3:37, the time the tsunami struck.

Until 12 years ago, children rode unicycles and held "hanami" cherry blossom viewing parties in the schoolyard.

My guide was Hiroyuki Konno, 61, who lost his son, Daisuke, a sixth-grader. 

Konno led me up a hill right behind the school. After a minute or so, we reached a concrete landing, high above the point hit by the tsunami.

The Kitakami River flowed peacefully. The gently sloping terrain enabled the tsunami to travel as far as 3.7 kilometers inland from the mouth of the river, swallowing up the Okawa district.

"Why couldn't (the kids) climb up the hill?" Konno mumbled. "My heart sinks in March every year." 

Why didn't the school use its buses to evacuate its pupils? Why was Okawa Elementary the only school in the area that lost so many of its children?

These questions tormented the bereaved families. And they never really got their answers, even when the Sendai District Court concluded, after five years and seven months of examining the case, that "the children's lives could have been saved."

The school building has since been opened to the public as a tsunami memorial site, and a memorial museum has also been built in Okawa to highlight the extent of the damage and provide other information.

Some people say these facilities bring back memories that are too painful and also point out their maintenance costs.

Still, I hope they will be preserved for posterity and serve as places where forgetful people like me can visit, talk with the locals and keep the memories alive.

This evening, memorial bamboo lanterns will be lit in the schoolyard. There will be 108--the number of pupils the school had 12 years ago.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 11

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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