Tsunami Learning Facility Opens In Ishinomaki
A tsunami learning facility has opened in the northeastern Japanese city of Ishinomaki, almost 10 years after the city was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
A nonprofit group spent 90 million yen, or about 830,000 dollars, to open the facility as part of its activities to pass on the lessons of the March 11, 2011 disaster.
The head of the group, Suzuki Noriyuki, said at the opening ceremony on Monday that his association will work with other organizations to make the facility one of the centers of the community.
The two-story wooden building has a large viewing screen measuring 3.5 meters tall and 12 meters wide.
A computer-generated image of the 2011 tsunami and survivors' accounts will be shown on the screen to enable visitors to see the destructive power of tsunami and to teach them how to escape to safety.
The facility also has a learning space for children.
A memorial park will open nearby later this month. A tsunami-hit former elementary school has been preserved as a reminder of the disaster.
The group says it wants to make the facility a place where visitors to the park and the school can interact with local people.