Abstract
The study discussed the utilization of records of a natural disaster at schools affected by the disaster for future disaster risk reduction. It dealt with a school-based tsunami disaster risk reduction education in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, which is one of the most severely affected areas by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Examining the history of developing the tsunami disaster education program, it discussed how timings and conditions for the elementary school children to learn from the actual tsunami disaster record of the community. As teaching and learning materials, local and original contents were utilized including locally displayed tsunami records in the community and the ‘Reconstruction Map’ that recorded progress of reconstruction in the school district, made by the school children between 2012 to 2014. The study found that disaster education shifted in 2016 from its focus on recovery to more on disaster risk reduction, five years later from the earthquake and tsunami, when the City experienced an earthquake with a tsunami warning for the first time since the 2011 disaster. This study intends to contribute to the issue of dealing with disaster experiences within school education programs.
