Etching the earthquake in the memories of Indian Children - A new form of Interchange under the COVID-19 Pandemic
ISHIMARU Aoi / The Japan Foundation New Delhi
June 4, 2021
I would be in India on March 11, 2011, the tenth commemoration of the Great East Japan Earthquake. What could I do about it? It was toward the end of 2019 that I started thinking about it. It was because of my own experience in the affected area that I wanted to tell people in India about “the earthquake” which occurred in a faraway foreign country so that it would remain in their memory. This was how the idea for “Stories of Courage”, an online picture book storytelling event held on March 10, 2021, was triggered.
I was a university student when the earthquake occurred. I took the opportunity to participate in volunteer activities in the quake-hit area as a part of a university class, and continued to visit there personally. The place where I mainly worked is a small island called Kesennuma Ohshima in Miyagi prefecture. At first, it involved a lot of manual labour such as removing debris from the tsunami and cleaning abandoned houses. As reconstruction progressed, there was less and less work to do. Still, we maintained contact and, even after I started working after graduation, I went to the island to help them with agricultural work and oyster farming, or to run in a marathon event.
Whenever I visited the island, people there always welcomed me and we used to drink together and talk late into the night. On those occasions, I remember them saying many times that they were glad that our bond forged through the earthquake had continued. At the same time, however, I was feeling that it was difficult to stay connected to the affected area while not forgetting the disaster. In fact, now I am far away from the affected area and have fewer chances to exchange words with them than before.
Because of such experiences in the quake-hit area, I felt growing in me a sense of a mission to plan a project which is not transient and will remain in people’s memories for a long time. Some ideas crossed my mind. A photo exhibition? Or a film screening? It may be a good idea to show folk performing art of the Tohoku region…. Just as the project was showing signs of taking off after having meetings with local cultural organizations, the world was hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Above all, India was affected the hardest. The planned projects were cancelled across the board and I was forced to evacuate from India, to return to Japan. It was November 2020 when I finally returned to India. By then all events had to be switched to online.
We had to replan this project as an online event. Just as I was about to give up my original idea of making the event “indelible in peoples’ memories”, I encountered a picture book. The book was called “Voices in the Wind”, which was written on the motif of “The Phone Booth in the Wind” installed in Otsuchi-cho in Iwate prefecture for people to convey their feelings and thoughts to their lost beloved. I delved further, and discovered that there are many picture books with a theme about earthquakes in Japan. This led me to think about translating them into Hindi and reading them to children. My mother used to read picture books to me when I was small and there are many stories I still remember. With just illustrations and a voice, it’s so simple that it is easy to convey messages. Thinking that it could make a lasting impression even online, I selected three more books as a result of my research.
“Mother’s Lullaby” which was based on a true story of a letter arriving from a deceased mother to her children after the quake; “A Dogwood Path”, a story of a mother who plants dogwood trees, which her lost son loved, to mark the path for emergency evacuation; “Moon Shell” where a girl who lost her family is guided by a mysterious shell to come into contact with the souls of the victims. All of them are powerful picture books and we were convinced that these would reach children’s heart even online. Ms. Tomoko Kikuchi, a Japanese-Hindi translator whom I knew well, kindly agreed to translate them.
Furthermore, when we consulted Bookaroo Trust, which organizes a Children Literature Festival in Delhi, in order to reach out to more children, they became our reliable partner, willing to work with us on this meaningful project. Then, two great storytellers, Kapil and Priyanka, joined us. As I heard their wonderful story-telling at a rehearsal, it brought tears to my eyes even though I didn’t understand Hindi very well. Despite the short time period, preparations went quickly and smoothly. I felt as if we were being led by some invisible hand.
On the day of the event, we could see that a lot of children on the screen were listening intently to Kapil and Priyanka read the four books in turn. There was a school which joined the event with more than a hundred of their students in a big hall like a gymnastic hall. Children were shy and it was not easy to get feedbacks from them directly. But what one of the teachers told us stood out in my memory most: “In India, we would not normally think about creating picture books based on a theme of disasters or its victims. It was a novel and appealing idea. With a tool such as picture books, it is easy to convey messages.”
All of the characters in the picture books are thinking of their loved ones lost in the earthquake. I hope that this memory of a story-telling event has been etched somewhere in the minds of children as one of the signposts to understand others’ bereavement and prayers. I am certain that it will lead to further cross-cultural understanding.
Aoi Ishimaru is Director, Arts and Cultural Exchange, the Japan Foundation New Delhi.
I was a university student when the earthquake occurred. I took the opportunity to participate in volunteer activities in the quake-hit area as a part of a university class, and continued to visit there personally. The place where I mainly worked is a small island called Kesennuma Ohshima in Miyagi prefecture. At first, it involved a lot of manual labour such as removing debris from the tsunami and cleaning abandoned houses. As reconstruction progressed, there was less and less work to do. Still, we maintained contact and, even after I started working after graduation, I went to the island to help them with agricultural work and oyster farming, or to run in a marathon event.
Whenever I visited the island, people there always welcomed me and we used to drink together and talk late into the night. On those occasions, I remember them saying many times that they were glad that our bond forged through the earthquake had continued. At the same time, however, I was feeling that it was difficult to stay connected to the affected area while not forgetting the disaster. In fact, now I am far away from the affected area and have fewer chances to exchange words with them than before.
Because of such experiences in the quake-hit area, I felt growing in me a sense of a mission to plan a project which is not transient and will remain in people’s memories for a long time. Some ideas crossed my mind. A photo exhibition? Or a film screening? It may be a good idea to show folk performing art of the Tohoku region…. Just as the project was showing signs of taking off after having meetings with local cultural organizations, the world was hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Above all, India was affected the hardest. The planned projects were cancelled across the board and I was forced to evacuate from India, to return to Japan. It was November 2020 when I finally returned to India. By then all events had to be switched to online.
We had to replan this project as an online event. Just as I was about to give up my original idea of making the event “indelible in peoples’ memories”, I encountered a picture book. The book was called “Voices in the Wind”, which was written on the motif of “The Phone Booth in the Wind” installed in Otsuchi-cho in Iwate prefecture for people to convey their feelings and thoughts to their lost beloved. I delved further, and discovered that there are many picture books with a theme about earthquakes in Japan. This led me to think about translating them into Hindi and reading them to children. My mother used to read picture books to me when I was small and there are many stories I still remember. With just illustrations and a voice, it’s so simple that it is easy to convey messages. Thinking that it could make a lasting impression even online, I selected three more books as a result of my research.
“Mother’s Lullaby” which was based on a true story of a letter arriving from a deceased mother to her children after the quake; “A Dogwood Path”, a story of a mother who plants dogwood trees, which her lost son loved, to mark the path for emergency evacuation; “Moon Shell” where a girl who lost her family is guided by a mysterious shell to come into contact with the souls of the victims. All of them are powerful picture books and we were convinced that these would reach children’s heart even online. Ms. Tomoko Kikuchi, a Japanese-Hindi translator whom I knew well, kindly agreed to translate them.
Furthermore, when we consulted Bookaroo Trust, which organizes a Children Literature Festival in Delhi, in order to reach out to more children, they became our reliable partner, willing to work with us on this meaningful project. Then, two great storytellers, Kapil and Priyanka, joined us. As I heard their wonderful story-telling at a rehearsal, it brought tears to my eyes even though I didn’t understand Hindi very well. Despite the short time period, preparations went quickly and smoothly. I felt as if we were being led by some invisible hand.
On the day of the event, we could see that a lot of children on the screen were listening intently to Kapil and Priyanka read the four books in turn. There was a school which joined the event with more than a hundred of their students in a big hall like a gymnastic hall. Children were shy and it was not easy to get feedbacks from them directly. But what one of the teachers told us stood out in my memory most: “In India, we would not normally think about creating picture books based on a theme of disasters or its victims. It was a novel and appealing idea. With a tool such as picture books, it is easy to convey messages.”
All of the characters in the picture books are thinking of their loved ones lost in the earthquake. I hope that this memory of a story-telling event has been etched somewhere in the minds of children as one of the signposts to understand others’ bereavement and prayers. I am certain that it will lead to further cross-cultural understanding.
Aoi Ishimaru is Director, Arts and Cultural Exchange, the Japan Foundation New Delhi.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
インドの子どもたちの記憶に震災を刻む—コロナ禍での新しい交流の形
石丸 葵 / 国際交流基金ニューデリー日本文化センター
2021年 6月 4日
東日本大震災から10年を迎えるとき、私はインドにいるだろう。そのとき、私に何ができるだろうか、そんなことを考え始めたのは2019年の暮れの頃だった。遠い異国で起こった「震災」について、インドの人々に記憶に残る形で伝えたいと思った背景には筆者の被災地での経験があり、そして生まれたのが2021年3月10日に実施した、オンラインの絵本読み聞かせイベント”Stories of Courage”である。
震災が起こったとき大学生だった筆者は、授業の一環で被災地でのボランティア活動に参加する機会があり、その後も個人的に訪問を続けていた。主に活動していたのは、宮城県の気仙沼大島という小さな島である。津波で押し寄せた瓦礫を取り除いたり、住む人がいなくなって放置された家を清掃したり、最初は人手のいる作業が多かったが、復興が進むにつれ作業も少なくなっていった。それでも交流は続き、社会人になってから農作業や牡蠣養殖の手伝いに行ったり、島で行われるマラソン大会に参加したりもした。
いつ行っても島の人たちは歓迎してくれ、一緒にお酒を飲みながら夜遅くまで話し込むこともあったが、そんな時に彼らから「震災で繋がった縁が続いていることが嬉しい」という言葉を何度も聞いた。しかし震災を忘れず、被災地と繋がりを保つことは難しいことだと感じていた。実際に筆者はいま被災地から遠く離れた場所にいて、以前のように彼らと言葉を交わす機会も減ってしまっている。
そんな被災地での経験から、一過性でない、記憶に長く残る事業を企画したいという使命感のようなものがあった。写真展をしよう、映画も上映しよう、東北の民俗芸能を見せるのも良いかもしれない…。現地の文化団体とミーティングを行い、企画が立ち上がりそうな兆しが見えた矢先に新型コロナウイルスのパンデミックが起こる。インドは特にその影響を大きく受け、予定していた企画は軒並み中止、筆者も日本への避難帰国を余儀なくされた。ようやくインドに戻ることができたのは2020年11月、その時には事業は全てオンラインに切り替わっていた。
オンラインという形で改めて本企画を練り直すことになったが、「記憶に残るような」という当初の思いは実現できそうにないと半ば諦めかけていたとき、1冊の絵本に出会った。それは『かぜのでんわ』という、会えなくなった人に思いを伝えるために、岩手県大槌町に置かれた「風の電話ボックス」をモチーフに描かれた絵本で、さらに調べると日本には震災をテーマに描かれた絵本がたくさんあると知った。そういう絵本を翻訳して子どもたちに読み聞かせをするのはどうだろう、筆者も子どもの頃に母に絵本を読んでもらい、今でも覚えているお話がいくつもある。イラストと声のみで、シンプルだからこそ伝わりやすく、これならオンラインでも印象に残りやすいのではと考え、リサーチの末にさらに3冊の本を選んだ。
震災の後、亡くなった母親から子どもたちに手紙が届いた実話を元に作られた『かあさんのこもりうた』、避難の目印として息子が好きだったハナミズキを植える母親の話『ハナミズキのみち』、そして家族を失った少女が不思議な貝に導かれて犠牲者の魂と触れ合う『月の貝』。どれも力のある絵本で、これならオンラインでも必ず届くと確信した。親交のあったヒンディー語翻訳者の菊池智子さんも翻訳を快諾してくださった。
さらに、より多くの子どもたちに届けるためにデリーで子ども文学祭を開催している団体Bookarooにも相談したところ、意義深い企画なので協力させて欲しいと心強いパートナーになってくれた。そして素晴らしいストーリーテラーであるKapilとPriyankaも加わった。リハーサルで聞いた彼らの語りは、ヒンディー語がほとんど分からない筆者でさえ涙を誘うほど素晴らしかった。短い期間にも関わらず、とんとん拍子に準備が進み、まるで何かに導かれているような、そんな気さえしてしまうくらいだった。
イベント当日、画面の向こうで多くの子どもたちが、4冊の本を交代で読み聞かせるKapilとPriyankaの語りにじっと耳を澄ます様子を見ることができた。大きな体育館のような場所に100人以上の生徒が集まって参加してくれる学校もあった。子どもたちはシャイで、なかなか感想を聞くのが難しかったが、参加した学校の先生の一人が「インドでは災害やその被災者をテーマに絵本を作るという発想がないので、新鮮だった。絵本というツールがあれば子どもたちにも伝えやすい」と話してくれたのが印象に残っている。
絵本の中の登場人物たちは皆、震災で失った大切な人を想っている。この読み聞かせの記憶が、他者の悼みや祈りを理解するための道標の一つとして、彼らの心のどこかに刻まれたことを願っている。それはきっと異文化理解にもつながるはずだから。
筆者は国際交流基金ニューデリー日本文化センター 文化芸術交流担当ディレクター
震災が起こったとき大学生だった筆者は、授業の一環で被災地でのボランティア活動に参加する機会があり、その後も個人的に訪問を続けていた。主に活動していたのは、宮城県の気仙沼大島という小さな島である。津波で押し寄せた瓦礫を取り除いたり、住む人がいなくなって放置された家を清掃したり、最初は人手のいる作業が多かったが、復興が進むにつれ作業も少なくなっていった。それでも交流は続き、社会人になってから農作業や牡蠣養殖の手伝いに行ったり、島で行われるマラソン大会に参加したりもした。
いつ行っても島の人たちは歓迎してくれ、一緒にお酒を飲みながら夜遅くまで話し込むこともあったが、そんな時に彼らから「震災で繋がった縁が続いていることが嬉しい」という言葉を何度も聞いた。しかし震災を忘れず、被災地と繋がりを保つことは難しいことだと感じていた。実際に筆者はいま被災地から遠く離れた場所にいて、以前のように彼らと言葉を交わす機会も減ってしまっている。
そんな被災地での経験から、一過性でない、記憶に長く残る事業を企画したいという使命感のようなものがあった。写真展をしよう、映画も上映しよう、東北の民俗芸能を見せるのも良いかもしれない…。現地の文化団体とミーティングを行い、企画が立ち上がりそうな兆しが見えた矢先に新型コロナウイルスのパンデミックが起こる。インドは特にその影響を大きく受け、予定していた企画は軒並み中止、筆者も日本への避難帰国を余儀なくされた。ようやくインドに戻ることができたのは2020年11月、その時には事業は全てオンラインに切り替わっていた。
オンラインという形で改めて本企画を練り直すことになったが、「記憶に残るような」という当初の思いは実現できそうにないと半ば諦めかけていたとき、1冊の絵本に出会った。それは『かぜのでんわ』という、会えなくなった人に思いを伝えるために、岩手県大槌町に置かれた「風の電話ボックス」をモチーフに描かれた絵本で、さらに調べると日本には震災をテーマに描かれた絵本がたくさんあると知った。そういう絵本を翻訳して子どもたちに読み聞かせをするのはどうだろう、筆者も子どもの頃に母に絵本を読んでもらい、今でも覚えているお話がいくつもある。イラストと声のみで、シンプルだからこそ伝わりやすく、これならオンラインでも印象に残りやすいのではと考え、リサーチの末にさらに3冊の本を選んだ。
震災の後、亡くなった母親から子どもたちに手紙が届いた実話を元に作られた『かあさんのこもりうた』、避難の目印として息子が好きだったハナミズキを植える母親の話『ハナミズキのみち』、そして家族を失った少女が不思議な貝に導かれて犠牲者の魂と触れ合う『月の貝』。どれも力のある絵本で、これならオンラインでも必ず届くと確信した。親交のあったヒンディー語翻訳者の菊池智子さんも翻訳を快諾してくださった。
さらに、より多くの子どもたちに届けるためにデリーで子ども文学祭を開催している団体Bookarooにも相談したところ、意義深い企画なので協力させて欲しいと心強いパートナーになってくれた。そして素晴らしいストーリーテラーであるKapilとPriyankaも加わった。リハーサルで聞いた彼らの語りは、ヒンディー語がほとんど分からない筆者でさえ涙を誘うほど素晴らしかった。短い期間にも関わらず、とんとん拍子に準備が進み、まるで何かに導かれているような、そんな気さえしてしまうくらいだった。
イベント当日、画面の向こうで多くの子どもたちが、4冊の本を交代で読み聞かせるKapilとPriyankaの語りにじっと耳を澄ます様子を見ることができた。大きな体育館のような場所に100人以上の生徒が集まって参加してくれる学校もあった。子どもたちはシャイで、なかなか感想を聞くのが難しかったが、参加した学校の先生の一人が「インドでは災害やその被災者をテーマに絵本を作るという発想がないので、新鮮だった。絵本というツールがあれば子どもたちにも伝えやすい」と話してくれたのが印象に残っている。
絵本の中の登場人物たちは皆、震災で失った大切な人を想っている。この読み聞かせの記憶が、他者の悼みや祈りを理解するための道標の一つとして、彼らの心のどこかに刻まれたことを願っている。それはきっと異文化理解にもつながるはずだから。
筆者は国際交流基金ニューデリー日本文化センター 文化芸術交流担当ディレクター
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟