A baseball team in Ofunato Senior High played with full of vitality
[From Ofunato city-my stricken home town]
-Great East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Disaster-
A match against Akashi Senior High in Hyogo prefecture
The baseball team in Ofunato Senior High School visited Akashi city in Hyogo prefecture and played a match against Akashi Senior High School on May 28. The baseball team from the stricken city Ofunato was invited by the NPO organization in Kobe ‘The Great Hanshin Earthquake 1.17- A Light for Hope’ and other supporters. Akashi Senior High School had also been suffered a great deal of damage from The Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995.
Although, the playground was muddy caused by rainfall, both teams were full of vitality and gave their best. Result of the match was even of 2-2. ‘They and we had similar bad experiences under the disaster. We were looking forward to playing baseball game against them. We are very happy being involved in baseball.’ Mr. Norimoto Ujiie (18), the captain of Ofunato Senior High School looked feeling a sense of fulfillment. On the other hand, Mr. Takuma Hayashi (18), the captain of Akashi Seniro High School was deeply impressed with the attitude of the Ofunato baseball team. ‘Their play was full of vitality and vivacious. We must learn from their perseverance.’
Ofunato baseball team expected to play another match against a baseball team in Awaji-Mihara Senior High School after that but was called off because of bad weather. So, members from all three baseball teams participated at a luncheon party. Young players could deepen a friendship each other while enjoy eating ‘Okonomiyaki’ or a Japanese-style pancake and ‘Somen’ or thin wheat noodles, served from the supporters.
In 1984, Ofunato Senior High School ranked as one of the best 4 at the “Spring Koshien” or the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament. Akashi Senior High School had also taken part in the tournament. Mr. Toru Yoshida (44), the manager of Ofunato baseball team, was acted as a captain at the tournament in 1984. ‘Today’s match was quite good at this moment for both teams. We must try much harder to make one or two steps out forward to get a ticket for participating to “Summer Kōshien”’. The manager of Ofunato baseball team encouraged all players at the luncheon party.
10 players of Ofunato baseball team lost their homes and a few of them lost their family members from the tsunami. The team is going to play against Shinko-Gakuen Senior High School on May 29.
Summer Kōshien
 |
| “Summer Kōshien” or the National High School Baseball Championship of Japan |
“Summer Kōshien” is common name of the National High School Baseball Championship of Japan that is an annual nationwide high school base ball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan, even as soccer continues to gain more attention.
The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and Asahi Shimbun, takes place during the summer school vacation period, culminating in a two-week final tournament stage with 49 teams in August at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya city, Hyogo.
The Great Hanshin earthquake
 |
| The Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe earthquake in 1995 |
The Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe earthquake, was an earthquake that occurred on Tuesday, January 17, 1995, at 05:46 JST (16 January at 20:46 UTC) in the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. It measured 6.8 on the moment magnitude scale (USGS), and Mj7.3 (adjusted from 7.2) on JMA magnitude scale. The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. The focus of the earthquake was located 16 km beneath its epicenter, on the northern end of Awaji Island, 20 km away from the city of Kobe.
Approximately 6,434 people lost their lives (final estimate as of December 22, 2005); about 4,600 of them were from Kobe.[ Among major cities, Kobe, with its population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicenter and hit by the strongest tremors. This was Japan’s worst earthquake in the 20th century after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, which claimed 140,000 lives. It caused approximately ten trillion yen ($100 billion) in damage, 2.5% of Japan’s GDP at the time.
＜Reference＞
http://www.kyodo.co.jp/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
View Akashi Senior High School in a larger map
Loading...