Although only an infant at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Tomoya Onodera is among the young people picking up the mantle and passing on the lessons from the disaster. 

Tomoya, 15, a third-year student at Hashikami Junior High School in Kesennuma, a city on the northeastern edge of Miyagi Prefecture, posted a video on YouTube in early January for the first time.

In it, Tomoya first showed the inside of the former Kesennuma Koyo High School building, which the tsunami engulfed up to the fourth floor on March 11, 2011.

The school site now hosts the Ruins of the Great East Japan Earthquake Kesennuma City Memorial Museum.

“This is a classroom on the third floor. This car broke through the balcony and washed up here,” Tomoya explained in the video.

He moved to another room and quizzed the audience.

“There is another object in this room that was washed in from outside. What is it?”

The answer was a choice of four options: A pine tree; a motorcycle; a dead shark; or a piece of a telephone pole.

“If you want to know the correct answer, come to the museum and ask the storyteller!” Tomoya said.

He created 14 one-minute “short videos” like this one, all designed to attract interest, and posted them by the end of January.

The videos included interviews with visitors and dramatizations of problems and solutions that actually occurred at evacuation shelters.

The videos also included segments for people to spread the charms of Kesennuma.

In the summer when Tomoya was a first-year junior high school student, he began volunteering as a storyteller at the museum.

The impetus for his involvement came from his grandmother, who told him for the first time what transpired as the tragedy struck Kesennuma. 

On that day, Tomoya, who was 1 year and 4 months old, was at home near the beach with his grandparents.

The house was on a small hill, so it escaped the tsunami, but the surrounding area was swept away by the towering waves.

With the power out and large aftershocks continuing, they took shelter in a plastic greenhouse near their home and used an oil stove to keep out the cold.

His grandmother held the young Tomoya in her arms and protected him for a few days until his father came to pick him up.

The disaster had not really been “about me” until he heard the story from his grandmother, he said. Now, Tomoya felt it was real for the first time and thought that he should not take for granted that he was alive today.

“I might be able to save someone's life by sharing this experience myself,” he thought.

Currently, there are nine junior high school student guides at the museum. The number has decreased to one-third, compared to 2019, when the museum opened.

Tomoya came up with the idea of posting videos to increase the interest among his generation, many of whom did not directly experience the earthquake and tsunami.

But as these young people are growing up in the affected areas, many are wanting to carry the messages of that tragic day forward.

Tomoya taught himself the tricks of the trade on social media, and filmed and edited the videos with his smartphone.

Fellow guides helped with appearing in them and narrating.

Some of his videos have been viewed more than 1,500 times, and he feels he is getting a good response.

With an eye on becoming a teacher in the future, Tomoya is yearning to attend a university in Sendai.

But no matter where he goes or what he does, there is one thing he is determined to do: “I will always be a 'small storyteller' who tells people close to me about the disaster,” Tomoya vowed. 

CHILDREN LEAD IN ISHINOMAKI

This winter, the Miyagi 3.11 Tsunami Disaster Memorial Museum in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, welcomed its first volunteer interpreters, who are elementary school students.

They are Miyu Anzai, 9, and An Tanaka, 9, third-graders at a private elementary school in Sendai.

On Feb. 24, they guided a group of visitors for the first time.

“Ninety percent of those who died were killed by drowning because they did not run to higher ground or returned because they were worried about their homes,” they told the visitors.

“The speed of the tsunami was 36 kph at a depth of 10 meters, which is as fast as a short-distance Olympic runner,” they also said.

The guidance took only a few minutes.

While the two were busy telling the story as they had learned it, they made sure to give the explanations they had learned in their training.

It was photography that sparked the two's interest in the disaster.

While researching the marine debris problem, Miyu came across photos of the tsunami.

Around the same time, she also saw images on TV and asked her mother, “What is tsunami?”

When she heard the answer, she had more questions and wanted to learn more.

When her mother recommended that she become an interpreter, she thought, “I'm too nervous to do it.”

But when it was suggested that she do it with An, Miyu said she reconsidered because, “I might enjoy it.”

An had shown keen interest in photos of disaster-stricken areas displayed at roadside stations and other places since she was a child.

Her mother, Kaoru, noticed it, and taken her to related museums every time the family traveled to the coastal areas and her interest grew.

Miyu said of tsunami, “I want to tell as many people as possible that they should run away as soon as possible to protect the lives of their loved ones.”

An hopes to make use of her English skills and help people around the world learn more about the disaster.