Preparing young minds
THE use of picture books to educate children about disaster preparedness has been spreading in Japan.
This education programme is designed to explain earthquake mechanisms and evacuation procedures if an earthquake occurs, and also convey the importance of psychological care for disaster-affected children.
Increasing children’s knowledge of disasters through picture books and expanding their imagination is expected to enable them to react appropriately in times of emergency.
“What would you do if a strong earthquake occurs when you are asleep?”
The question is put to children at a nursery school in the Akatsuka area of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, during a recent event at which a picture book on disasters is read aloud. The event is attended by about 100 children belonging to classes for those aged one to five years old.
The book was produced for preschool children by Zenrosai, a Japanese federation of worker and consumer insurance cooperatives. It illustrates responses to be taken at the time of an earthquake and uses a questionand-answer format.
In response to a Zenrosai employee’s questions on how to respond if an earthquake were to occur while one is sleeping or eating, for example, the children shout out answers such as, “Protect my head with a pillow” and “Hide under the table and hold its legs” while looking at illustrations in the book.
According to editor-in-chief Sonoko Isozaki of EhonNavi Corp, an information website on picture books, many of these books on disaster education describe the mechanisms that cause such natural disasters as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and typhoons, and also convey the ter- rible consequences in the aftermath.
Attention has recently been focused on earthquake-related picture books in the aftermath of the great east Japan earthquake in 2011.
“Books written based on the experiences and lessons of people affected by the disaster, and also featuring evacuation procedures and the everyday life of evacuees, have become conspicuous,” Isozaki says.
One of the picture books recommended by Isozaki is Hanachan no Haya-aruki Haya-aruki (Hanachan’s speed walking, speed walking) published by Iwasaki Publishing Co.
The book tells the story of the children at the Nodamura
Nursery School in the village of Noda, Iwate Prefecture, which was hit by the 2011 disaster. Author Kyoko Ube is a native of the village and a poet.
The nursery school was washed away after being engulfed by the quake-triggered tsunami but all of the 90 children made it to safety. Their escape to higher ground was thanks to the training they received in speed walking during monthly evacuation exercises.
“Natural disasters could happen at any time and in any place,” Ube says. “I wanted to use the picture book to tell as many children as possible about the importance of preparing for disasters during ordinary times.”
A picture book was also written to help heal the psychological anguish of disaster-affected children.
Kumamoto city’s Kodomo Hattatsu Shien Center, a facility to assist children with developmental disabilities, produced a picture book titled Yap-pari Ouchi ga Iina (After all, home’s the best) last year. The effort was in response to requests it received in the aftermath of the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake for advice on such issues as, “My child is terrified and won’t enter the home” and, “My kid gets scared at night and cries”.
The picture book focuses on a five-year-old boy returning home after two weeks of taking refuge in a car, and describes the struggles of his family.
An official in charge at the centre says, “The picture book can promote people’s understanding of disasters through visualising their worries and anxieties, thereby making it possible for them to come to terms with them.”
The book can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Kumamoto municipal government (www.city.kumamoto.jp).
Kei Suyama, an associate professor of juvenile literature at Tokyo Polytechnic University and the chief of the secretariat at the Association for Studies of Picture Books, says children will be able to display the ability to face reality in times of emergency with the knowledge and imagination acquired through picture books.
“It’s encouraging to see the conversation between parents and children expand through picture books and serve as an opportunity to discuss disaster measures,” she says. – The Yomiuri Shimbun/ Asia News Network