It’s right next to the river.
It’s at the foot of the Shin-Kitakami
Bridge—in other words, next to the river. Although it’s a few meters higher
than the school, it’s not on high ground. It’s not a place where you can escape
a tsunami.
If they had left earlier, they could have
evacuated through this area toward the Kamaya Tunnel, but they didn’t start
moving from the schoolyard until the massive tsunami was already closing in and
water was spilling over from the river and ditches. Although they had senior
students leading the way, there was no time to line up properly; the line was
disorganized, and students from different grades were mixed together. The march
took about one minute. They went out of their way to take a narrow path behind
private homes (which was a dead end) and were heading toward the river even as
the tsunami was approaching. The children were driven into the narrowest spot,
where the mountainside was also steep. The distance traveled from the
schoolyard was about 150 meters for the child at the front of the line.
