On a Small Scale, But Still a Miracle

Ishinomaki is a middle-sized city of about 160,000 residents. It is at the meeting-point of a river and the sea, and as such has a commercial-cum-fishing port that has been flourishing for centuries.
It is, however, in Miyagi Prefecture, the one worst-hit by the quake and the tsunami in March last. The dead and the missing amount to nearly 4,000, about 2.5% of the residents.
There are 43 primary schools(6 years), 21 middle schools(3 years), 9 high schools(3 years), and one university(4 years) in the city, but most of them have been hit by the dual disaster, especially the tsunami.
But there is one primary school where all its 184 pupils have made their way to safety, mostly on their own. The great escape is now called 'The Miracle of Ishinomaki'. How surprising it is can be seen by contrasting it with the other extreme of another primary school in the same city, where as many as 74 pupils have either been dead or missing.
Let us reconstruct it on the basis of what has been broadcast recently.
According to what the children have told the media, it has been hammered into their head that tsunami is a fearful thing even if it is only 50cm high. As a matter of fact, the actual tsunami when it came was 15 metres high, easily overcoming the 5 metre-high barriers on the coast. On that day the children left school earlier than usual, and most of them were at their homes when it came. But most of them practised what they were told at school, which was to protect themselves first. This advice admirably suited the occasion when many of them were by themselves, or only with grandparents, while the parents were still away at work. It was still rather early in the afternoon.
Thus, in the case of two brothers who were at home, the elder one immediately thought of a coming tsunami when the quake was over, took the hand of the younger one and started running up the hills behind, but only after clothing them both with a jacket. It was still in the midst of the winter in their Prefecture.
Members of the baseball club who were playing the game outdoors also decided to hurry away from the coast. The one with an artificial leg was put on the back of the stronger one.
A boy who was together at home with a grandma found that the latter was not keen on escaping herself lest that would delay the boy's escape. He earnestly persuaded her to come with him, and in the end they both escaped from the sea waves precariously.
Another boy who was alone at home, judging that there was no time to go as far as the hills, decided to run up to the roof garden of a building, and saved himself.
There were innumerable cases at the time when those who were waiting for other members of the family to come home, or going around in search of their kith and kin were swallowed up by the tsunami. But the example of the above school would show, as one commentator said on the TV, that if there is trust in the family, each will believe that others must be safely on the run. The advice should not be simply for every one to escape according to his or her own light.