Suzu: Group evacuations started for more students Sunday in areas in Ishikawa Prefecture that were hit hard by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Noto Peninsula in central Japan on Jan. 1.

A total of 141 students of public junior high schools in the city of Suzu and the town of Noto left their hometowns for an accommodation facility of the Ishikawa Amateur Sports Association in the prefecture’s capital of Kanazawa.

The students are expected to stay at the facility until the March 31 end of the current school year at the latest. Their evacuations followed a similar move by students in Wajima, another severely-hit Ishikawa city, last week.

Those who evacuated Sunday were 102 out of the 199 students in Suzu and 39 out of the 247 students in Noto.

In front of a public library in Suzu, students boarded two large buses one after another in a drizzling rain around 10 a.m.

“I wasn’t able to study much due to the earthquake, so I’m looking forward to my first class in a long time and to seeing my friends,” said Shun Sawamura, 12, a first-year student at Midorigaoka Junior High School.

Sawamura’s mother, Megumi, a 44-year-old nurse, came to see her child off. “It’s better to evacuate than not being able to study here. I’m not worried because we sometimes couldn’t meet during the COVID-19 pandemic because of my work,” she said.

Hiroto Yachi, 14, of Horyu Elementary and Junior High School, who joined other evacuating students at a meeting point about 6 kilometers away, said, “I’m happy I can meet my friends for the first time in a long time.”

But Yachi added, “I feel nervous about studying at a different place, and I feel sad to be away from my family.” His mother, Kanako, 44, said, “Two months is a long time, but I want him to study hard despite that.”

From the buses, students waved through the windows and said goodbye to their families.

Since many students chose not to evacuate, the Suzu municipal government will reopen all its 11 elementary and junior high schools for attendance by Monday. It will consider starting online classes accessible to students who evacuated.

In Wajima, 258 out of the 401 students of the three municipal junior high schools evacuated to accommodation facilities for children and youths in Hakusan, southern Ishikawa, for a stay of up to two months.

“We will respond to the wishes of students who want to return to their local communities, while taking into account the status of schools after resumption,” an official of the prefectural board of education said.

JIJI Press