Underdogs of Iwaki: Naraha's return to sports

A 14-year-old junior high school student catches the 6 a.m. train in Iwaki in order to make it to school in the town of Naraha on time. For reasons I’ll explain later, I can’t use his name, so I’ll call him H.

H. arrives at a school that smells fresh like new wood floors, feels crisp like new textbooks, and exudes a modern optimism of new tablets and smartboards. Even on a rainy day, daylight streams through huge windows and amplifies the quiet in the halls. This is the combined Naraha Elementary and Junior High School. It opened in April 2017 and announced the true rebirth of the first town reopened after being evacuated in the nuclear contamination scare of March 2011.

After finishing classes for the day, he raced to the first floor gymnasium and began to set up the nets. H. is a wiry 14-year-old who sports the same blue school uniform like all students. Everyone on the sports teams changed into a t-shirt and shorts for practice.The whole group gathered and repeated the chant they say before every practice, the chant about working hard, trying their best and making this day better than the last. Then everyone including H. ran sprints and warmed up before practicing.

H. and the other members of the badminton team took a moment to bow and greet us as we watched them practice. No player seemed to get distracted by us or the sounds and environment of the new gym, but stayed focused on their swings and spikes. Earlier, H. told me that he likes the new gym because he can hit soaring lobs with the shuttlecock, something he could not do at the temporary school he attended in Iwaki. About 20 players showed the heart and valor that might be expected of students who are the first to attend this brand new school.

Residents of the town of Naraha were required to evacuate when it became clear the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was experiencing a meltdown in March, 2011. In September of 2015, Naraha was the first town to get the government’s all-clear for its residents to return, just as cherry blossoms return in spring after the long winter of bare branches.

Only 20 percent of the town’s pre-2011 population has returned. A community of 8,000 farmers, families and nuclear plant workers has become a place 1,600 residents are trying to call home. Many people forced to evacuate during the nuclear accident experienced discrimination in the towns they moved to. In order to protect the students from that stigma, the schools ask journalists not to reveal the identity of individual students. And so I am calling H. by his first initial.

Naraha’s middle schoolers today grew up attending a temporary school in Iwaki. Last month, the new, consolidated school opened in town and new students -- and the community they created -- arrived. This was the beginning of a fresh start for the youth of Naraha since they were able to return to study, play, and learn in the town they had once called home.

H. now lives in Iwaki because and his family will probably not move back to Naraha. His father found work in Iwaki and the family has built a new home 34 km away from this brand new school. But H. has friends who are returning to Naraha for school and he chooses to join them despite the commute.

In 2011, almost 105 students attended the junior high school in Naraha. Today, there are 43 students. And although all of them do an after school club or sport, the opportunities for athletes are fewer than they were. Naraha’s sports teams are in the ultimate rebuilding phase. Despite the shiny new gym, the new school has only three sport activities: table tennis, badminton and kendo.

I was sorry to miss kendo practice, because Japanese sports, especially this form of sword fighting, have always fascinated me. The combination of traditional respect and physical dedication and toughness intrigues me.

My sense is that with only three clubs in the beginning, the school will grow, bring back more students and create more sports clubs. The current clubs will keep helping the students with teamwork and focus, very important in Japan. Teammates and friends will help build a determination to persevere that will continue on, even after they have graduated.

They will become part of a tradition that is evident in the trophy cases in the entry to the school. Clearly, Naraha has pride in its sports teams. Photos of champion 7th/8th grade baseball teams are prominent, as as well as trophies for victories in basketball and soccer.

I really appreciate the heart I saw in the students at practice on Thursday. Rather than focusing on what they lost, they stepped up and chose to focus on what they can do to perfect their style in either kendo, badminton, or table tennis. H. said he would rather play soccer than badminton, but that’s not a current choice. So he has dedicated himself to badminton and keeping school spirit alive. Students and faculty show up to all the tournaments or large events for Naraha.

Despite all odds - despite losing almost 80 percent of the student body -- there are still sports being played at Naraha Junior High. Now that school is open and practice is on, the return of sports such as baseball, soccer, track, and basketball doesn’t seem like such a distant dream.

The events of 3.11 -- an earthquake, a tsunami, and here in Naraha, a nuclear meltdown -- showed that you can take away the school, but there was no way that the school spirit would be left behind, and it remains within the current students at Naraha Junior High.