Okawa Elementary School

Okawa Elementary School in the village of Kamaya was largely destroyed when the tsunami from the March 11, 2011 earthquake rushed up the Kitakami River. Seventy-four of the school's 108 students and ten of its eleven teachers lost their lives. The building's wreckage has been preserved, and the grounds are open to visitors. Informational exhibits, including photographs from before and immediately after the disaster, are installed throughout the site. At the entrance stands the Angel of Hope statue, placed there by the community. A visit here is quiet and sobering, and provides direct, unfiltered contact with the scale of what happened that day.