15 Years On: Childhood Vow with Late Friend Inspires Woman to Become Teacher

Ishinomaki, Miyagi Pref., March 8 (Jiji Press)–In April, 22-year-old Kirara Takahashi will begin work as an elementary school teacher in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, honoring a promise she once made with a close friend who died in the massive tsunami 15 years ago. Now a fourth-year student at Miyagi University of Education, Takahashi was a first grader at Kadonowaki Elementary School in the Pacific coastal city of Ishinomaki on March 11, 2011. She was walking home from school with classmates when powerful tremors from an earthquake suddenly struck. Gravestones in a nearby cemetery toppled with a thunderous crash. At the suggestion of one of the children with her, the group turned back to the school and then evacuated to higher ground. Takahashi was reunited with her family and spent several days at a neighborhood facility that had been turned into an evacuation shelter. Some time later, she learned that her best friend from the same class had died in the tsunami. At the time, she says, the news “didn’t really sink in.” As she grew older, however, the sense of loss deepened. In 2022, during a visit to her old school, which had been preserved as an earthquake and tsunami memorial, Takahashi noticed a photograph of a box of crayons among the exhibits. They had belonged to her late best friend. Confronted with that image, she felt again, more sharply than before, the painful realization: “I’ll never see her again.” Takahashi had been close to that friend since kindergarten. At school, they were almost always together, spending their time drawing in sketchbooks or playing tag in the schoolyard. “She was good at both studying and sports,” Takahashi recalls. One day, while they were playing on the jungle gym, Takahashi told her, “I want to become an elementary school teacher.” Her friend replied: “Me too. Let’s become teachers together.” Looking back, Takahashi says, “It was such a happy moment that I still remember it clearly even now.” Over the 15 years since the disaster, what has sustained her dream of becoming a teacher is her belief that “continuing to pursue my dream is a way of cherishing the memories I shared with my close friend,” she says. If she could meet that friend now–the friend who helped turn her vague wish to teach into a firm determination–she would simply say, “Thank you.” Starting this spring, Takahashi hopes to become “a teacher who can give children plenty of love.” She also wants to make use of her experience as a storyteller, having shared her memories of the disaster with children who did not live through the earthquake and tsunami. She is determined to devote herself to disaster education–fostering preparedness and response–“with deeper awareness than anyone else, so that we can protect the lives of the people we care about.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]