Students in Rain-Hit Western Japan City Resume Classes

September 3, 2018

Kurashiki, Okayama Pref.- Students from five elementary, junior high and high schools in Kurashiki hit heavily by downpours in July resumed classes on Monday, using spaces at other schools in the same western Japan city.

The five schools in the Mabicho district in the Okayama Prefecture city restarted business, after a suspension of about two months following the heavy rains. Buildings at the schools were flooded in the rains, causing them to shut before the start of school summer holidays.

On Monday, ceremonies to restart classes following the end of summer holidays were held at schools in the district. The five schools will continue classes at other schools until makeshift school buildings are ready.

First- through fourth-graders at Yata Elementary School, one of the five institutions, will study at Tamashima Elementary School in the Tamashimaagasaki district in Kurashiki, and fifth- and sixth-graders at neighboring Tamashima High School.

The students of the five schools currently live at evacuation centers, relatives' houses or private-sector housing leased by the prefecture. They will commute to school on buses prepared by the Kurashiki city government.

At Tamashima Elementary School, a message reading "Welcome to Tamashima Elementary School" was hanged from a balcony, and its students sang a song to greet students from the Yata school.

The two elementary schools separately held ceremonies to restart classes after the summer holidays. "I want all of you to live your lives energetically every day, without bowing to the rain disaster," Takumi Osaki, the principal of Yata Elementary School, told students at its ceremony.

At an event the two schools held later to introduce each other, Haruka Ando, 12, a sixth-grader at the Yata school, said, "We want to study hard as we're lagging behind (due to the rain-caused school suspension) and make friends with students of Tamashima Elementary School."

The Yata school had 286 students before the disaster. Of them, 18 moved to other schools after the heavy rain. The Tamashima school has 387 students.

The makeshift building for the Yata school is being constructed at the premises of Kaminima Elementary School in the Mabicho district, with completion slated at the end of this month. Jiji Press