38°32′47″N 141°25′43″E / 38.5463°N 141.4285°E / 38.5463; 141.4285

Okawa Elementary School (Japanese: 大川小学校, Hepburn: Ōkawa Shōgakkō) was an educational institution in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The school was destroyed in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. 74 of its 108 students, who had been sheltering in the school on the instructions of their teachers rather than evacuating to higher ground, were killed as it ran up the nearby Kitakami River. Only four of the students present when the tsunami struck the school survived. Ten of the school's eleven teachers also died. It was found that the school was unprepared for such an event, and that the scale of the tsunami had not been realized until it was too late.

In 2014, the families of 23 of the children who died sued Ishinomaki City and Miyagi Prefecture for compensation.^[1] In October 2016, they were awarded compensation of ¥1.4 billion (US$12.8 million).^[2] The school was formally closed in 2018.^[3]

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

After the earthquake struck, the school sustained substantial damage, with most of its windows shattered and the entire building at risk of collapse from aftershocks. Teachers gathered the students in the schoolyard and discussed where to evacuate. A hill behind the school was considered a viable option for evacuation; however, due to concerns of possible landslides and falling trees and rocks, it was decided that this was not the best option.^[4] Some students attempted to run up the hill, but were stopped by a teacher who ordered them to return to the schoolyard. During the discussions of where it would be best to evacuate, a school bus (which could have held up to 45 passengers) was available to transport students to safety. However, according to the co-worker of the deceased driver of said bus, the bus driver refused to drive the bus, stating that he would not depart with students “without orders from the school”.^[5] Twenty students’ parents arrived at the school to pick up their children and left after signing their children out. Some parents reported to the school staff that the tsunami was expected to hit soon. The teachers convinced some of the parents who arrived to pick up their children to stay at the school with their children, on the basis that remaining at the school was “safer”. One child’s mother, convinced by staff, sent her husband an e-mail at 15:29 JST that read, “I am at the school with our child”; both she and the child later died during the tsunami. Some of the parents saw children being stopped from running up the hill behind the school, although many students were begging their teachers to let them evacuate and were fearful that they would die if they remained in the school.^[4] Over 40 minutes after the earthquake, remaining teachers and students, along with civilians who had arrived at the school to seek safety, eventually decided to evacuate to higher ground on National Route 398.

After the group reached the prefectural route, the tsunami began engulfing the crowd from the front. A teacher and several students who were at the rear of the line turned back and started running toward the hill behind the school. Some of the students and a teacher who turned back survived,^[6] but other students couldn't move, paralyzed by the sight of the large tsunami. The location towards which the group had been heading was a few meters lower than the tsunami and was completely engulfed by it. Unbeknownst to the group, the tsunami height warnings had been raised to 10 meters at the time from 6 meters at 15:14 JST; the group’s elevation was around 6 to 7 meters.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath of the tsunami

The school as the result of the tsunami, merged with Futamata Elementary School due to decreased number of students.^[7]