Following Disaster, Animals Bring Smiles

Written by Shun Fukuda

About 9 months after the earthquakes in the Tohoku region in Japan, the country is still rebuilding. The many helping the clean up of the region have planted new trees and plants. The roads are accessible and the airports are functioning again. The damage can still be seen, but slowly the region is cleaning up. I wanted to see if there were efforts other than the clean up in those areas.

On one of my video viewing sessions, I had come across an episode of one of my favorite Japanese programs: Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen. This program features celebrity and comedian co-hosts featuring unique or cute animals and interacting with them. The episode I had come across was a special feature of Masaki Aiba bringing animals to a school. Watching further, I realized that he was bringing various animals to make the children at the particular school smile and enjoy their day.

The school is in the Fukushima prefecture, where two schools that were near the disaster area are using an unused school building as a temporary joint school. Ookuma Shougakkou and Kumamachi Shougakkou both were located near the reactor area and the schools were re-located to this unused school building 150km away. Many of the children have parents who work at the nuclear plant and are constantly worried about their parents.

As said by the narrator of the show, the children have been taken from their homes, and live in temporary living quarters while the contamination is being taken care of. They have experienced a huge disaster and have been scarred psychologically at a young age. Masaki planned to cheer the children up and return smiles to their faces. Within the video, it is said he had brought 100 different animals to show and interact with the children.

Throughout the day, he shows them animals such as alpacas and hamsters and lets them touch and feed them. He also educates them on various unique abilities in animals, such as viewing a chameleon’s long tongue through special goggles. I kept watching, glued to the screen and seeing the children smile and laugh, I realized that even small actions such as this is a step to letting those affected in Japan recover. Through creating smiles, Masaki lifted some of the worries from the children.

Shun Fukuda is a writer and student at The College of William and Mary. He is currently finishing up his undergraduate degree with a major in English.