SHIMONOSEKI, Yamaguchi Prefecture--Bums on seats is one thing but bums on car horns?

Former kindergarten teacher Asami Koga gives an emphatic yes to the latter if it will help save children’s lives.

Like countless others, Koga, 46, was stunned by an incident in Japan in July 2021 in which a child died of heatstroke after being left on a locked school bus for hours.

The tragedy left the Shimonoseki resident grappling for ways to save lives as there appeared to be no end to incidents involving kids locked in passenger vehicles.

In such situations, she urges children to plunk their bottoms on the horn by sitting on the steering wheel and stay in that position until the blaring attracts attention.

Koga recalled being deeply shocked by a television news report in July 2021 about a 5-year-old boy who died of heatstroke after being left aboard a day nursery’s shuttle bus in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture.

The day-care center’s principal, who drove the vehicle, did not bother to check inside the bus before locking the door. The boy was apparently trapped in the vehicle for nine hours in blazing heat.

For Koga, who had worked at a kindergarten in Fukuoka Prefecture, the tragedy in Nakama was “unimaginable.” She couldn’t understand why the homeroom teacher didn’t take note of the boy’s absence that day.

PRECIOUS LIVES

She recalled the stern rebuke handed out to her one time by the kindergarten principal at her previous workplace.

Part of her morning routine was to examine each row of seats on the school bus after the children had disembarked. Starting from the front line, Koga even looked under the seats to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

Koga only once overlooked a water bottle left by a child on the bus in her eight years career there. The kindergarten principal scolded, saying, “What if it had been a child left behind on the bus?”

She learned a valuable lesson that day.

Koga checked the number of children with a list of the kids due to board and disembark each day. She profoundly regretted not noticing the lost item but felt it would be impossible to lose track of a child.

“No one would leave a child behind” in a bus, Koga recalled thinking.

Even so, the kindergarten staff discussed what they needed to pay particular attention to, with the aim of preventing a recurrence.

The principal told the staff members: “You tell the parents every morning without thinking, ‘We will take care of them.’ But do you truly understand what you are taking care of? The lives of the children.”

Koga said the principal’s words remain deeply engraved in her heart.

A year after the accident in Nakama, a 3-year-old girl died in similar circumstances at a nursery in Shizuoka Prefecture. She had been left stranded on the facility’s shuttle bus.

On learning of the incident, Koga concluded that this type of tragedy “may no longer be unimaginable in child caring establishments these days.”

Recalling her own two-week hospitalization while pregnant with her second daughter, Koga knew full well how painful it must be for mothers to lose a child in such circumstances, after having risked their lives to give birth and then raised them with love. Her second daughter is now 7 years old.

Even after dedicated safety features on school buses became mandatory in spring 2023, incidents of kids being trapped in cars and other vehicles continue to occur.

That summer, Koga and a former kindergarten colleague founded a citizens group called Te To Te.

WEAK ARM STRENGTH

The group promotes honking the horn with the buttocks as part of efforts to teach children life-saving techniques they can perform on their own.

With this approach, small children with limited arm strength can signal distress without expending much energy since they simply must sit on the steering wheel.

Soliciting donations, Koga created a sticker featuring an illustration of a person seated on a steering wheel. She said 4,000 copies of the sticker were distributed to day nurseries and kindergartens in Shimonoseki in June of this year.

“I don’t want the memories of the tragedies to fade,” she said. “I believe that we must pass down to posterity the precious lessons the victimized children taught us with their young lives.”

With Japan experiencing record heat this summer, Koga is tackling the issue of saving lives with renewed vigor.

“It will never be acceptable to let children down this way,” she said.