Okawa Elementary School

Okawa Elementary School (Japanese: 大川小学校, Hepburn: Ōkawa Shōgakkō) was an educational institution in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

74 of its 108 students, who had been sheltering in the school on the instructions of their teachers rather than evacuating to higher ground, were killed as the tsunami ran up the nearby Kitakami River.

[3] After the earthquake struck, the school sustained substantial damage, with most of its windows shattered and the entire building at risk of collapse from aftershocks.

[4] Over 40 minutes after the earthquake, remaining teachers and students, along with civilians who had arrived at the school to seek safety, eventually decided to evacuate to higher ground on National Route 398.

A teacher and several students who were at the rear of the line turned back and started running toward the hill behind the school.