Photo/Illutration The New Year’s Day earthquake caused the ground to crack and collapse at Wajima Junior High School in Ishikawa Prefecture. (Tatsuya Shimada)

Allied air raids intensified in the final months leading to Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945.

Writing about that time, author Kuniko Mukoda (1929-1981) recalled in an essay that her baby sister was still too young to be able to write, but her father decided she should leave home with a group of schoolchildren who were being evacuated from Tokyo.

Before her departure, the father handed her a bundle of pre-addressed postcards and told her: “Draw a circle on the card when you are having a good day. Put one card in the postbox every day.”

At first, the circles she drew were in red and almost too big to fit on the postcard. But the circle suddenly began to shrink and then was replaced by a cross, until the cards stopped coming altogether.

When the little girl finally returned home three months later, Mukoda “saw, for the first time, my father--a grown man--sobbing uncontrollably.”

It is heartbreaking for a child to be sent away from home. But it also must be just as painful for the parent to see their child off.

In the Ishikawa Prefecture city of Wajima, which was severely damaged by the New Year’s Day earthquake, all 401 of the city’s junior high school children are being considered for temporary evacuation.

Those wishing to go along with the plan will leave their homes and move into facilities about 100 kilometers away.

I don’t think anyone can really welcome the idea of being separated from their family in difficult times. But schools in Wajima have become evacuation centers, and there is no telling when they can reopen for classes.

What’s best for the children? My heart aches when I imagine how hard it must be for parents and guardians who are being forced to make a decision.

It would be ideal to focus on whatever can be tried out, while simultaneously striving to return to a pre-quake state as soon as possible. Evacuated children will need to be watched over closely and with great care, while every effort is made to hasten the construction of temporary housing in Wajima.

I know this is no consolation for survivors who have already suffered enough, but it so happens that the tougher the trial, the stronger one’s family ties can grow at times.

A junior high school student, who survived the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 in the town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture, penned this poem: “One thing I learned/ The preciousness of my family.”

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 13

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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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