Keio University Minamisanriku Project: The Trajectory of Eight Years

Photo: August 2019, at the activity base camp "Nagashizu-so." Together with the members of the Endo family, who guided and taught students for 97 terms over eight years.

Since the summer vacation of 2011, when ten volunteer buses were dispatched from Hiyoshi to Minamisanriku Town, this project has conducted training camps based on a 3-night, 4-day schedule during Golden Week, summer vacation, Mita Festival, and spring break. The activities, which continued in the same form as immediately after the earthquake, will conclude this fiscal year, with the final camp held last summer. Through fiscal year 2019, a total of 97 terms were completed, with a cumulative total of 1,755 student and faculty participants. This number does not include the graduates who visited the camps.

Minamisanriku Town became the destination because Keio University has a school forest on Mt. Tsurube (472m above sea level), the second highest peak in the area. Shiki Senior High School had also visited for natural science training before the earthquake. This project began in the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake in the following way. Let us quote the words of the former representative, Akiko Nagaoki (formerly of the Faculty of Economics), who energetically led the project until her retirement last fiscal year, from the first-year report.

Days when everyone was asking themselves something. (Omitted) I didn't want the daily routine of university life to start as if nothing had happened. I didn't want to send a message to the students that the university exists as a place that does nothing in the face of such a crisis. (Omitted) We decided. Let's go to Minamisanriku Town with the students during summer vacation!

The project began with volunteer faculty and students gathering and receiving grants from the Future-Leading Initiatives Foundation and the Hiyoshi Adjustment Budget. This was a time when travel to the disaster-stricken areas, facilities, and supplies were all scarce. With the primary goal of not causing trouble for the local community, participants were taught how to behave according to the circumstances of the time and the skills necessary for the activities before participating. In particular, students were assigned to research Minamisanriku Town and shared knowledge through study sessions before and after the camps. This initiative continues today, even as the slogan has changed from "Not going to a disaster area, but going to Minamisanriku Town" to "Let's become supporters of Minamisanriku Town—connecting with Minamisanriku Town from the Keio Forest," and it has become a fundamental characteristic of this project. This is because the difference between information researched on the internet or in libraries and the real world is vast, and that becomes an opportunity for learning.

As a report on the results of volunteer activities, it might be logical to list items such as the production of over 70 wooden benches branded with The Pen Mark and their installation in temporary housing, but I cannot help but hesitate. As Ms. Nagaoki wrote in the final report:

"In the course of these activities, I have seen many self-centered projects by supporters that I did not think would be useful to the local people. We have learned from them as cautionary tales."

As she wrote, we have avoided the support and surveys we planned as much as possible. More than that, as the personal feeling of a supervisor, I cannot help but think that the true outcome of this project is simply that the participants were given countless opportunities for learning that they could not have experienced on campus. There is far more to learn in that area than the help we can provide. Surviving the earthquake and its aftermath. Thinking about what one can do in the event of a disaster. Because the people of Minamisanriku understand this, they looked toward the future and warmly watched over and nurtured the students. This was true for eight years, even during difficult times. I want everyone involved with the Juku to know of their great kindness.

And I believe that the bonds formed with the local area by the many "Keio people" who worked hard there have become an asset to Keio University. Additionally, the practice sessions of the Senior High School Judo Club led by Fumitaka Kaburagi (Physical Education), which graduate Yoshiaki Nakayama and others continued in conjunction with this project, became a regular event where many Judo Clubs from across Tohoku gathered at Shizugawa High School.

In this project, alongside supporting the local community, students completed a promenade to the mountain peak with the desire to effectively use the Keio mountain for the town's reconstruction, and have continued its maintenance ever since. Over two and a half years starting in 2012, they created a path where none existed by manually felling trees, making stakes, lining up wood, tilling the soil, and constructing the trail. What supported the students' efforts was a sense of mission. Minamisanriku Town has a rare topographical feature where the boundary line is a watershed, and all river water in the town flows into the sea (Shizugawa Bay). The sea, rich in seafood, has been protected by the local people who protect the satoyama. The Keio mountain was once a place managed by a "ko" (village organization) and is one of the largest in the town. In other words, the Keio forest must be a mountain that maintains the natural cycle, including not only the planted cedars but also the neglected thickets.

Standing at the summit and looking out over the mountains and the sea, one feels it deeply. The mission of the Juku, which owns the forest, is significant. That is why I recently reported the conclusion of this project, which started from volunteers, to the President and made proposals for the future. I received a reply that the relevant directors would begin considering the educational and sustainable use of the school forest in Minamisanriku Town.

Unfortunately, it was canceled due to the spread of COVID-19, but a trip for Chutobu Junior High School students to learn about nature and society had been planned for this spring. The supervisor was Satoshi Kawauchi (Social Studies), a graduate who once participated in this project. The seeds that were sown are certainly growing.

I hope that the path their seniors made while covered in mud will one day become a place of learning for the entire Juku, including the university and affiliated schools, and a way to give back to the people of Minamisanriku Town.

Finally, there are too many people to thank, so I will leave those acknowledgments to the report. A video of the mountain made by former student staff member Yusuke Momiki (NHK Fukushima) is also posted on the project website. Please take a look.