Japan:Opening and Screening of the Smiling for Sure 2021 Video Time Capsule

Graduates of Kujo Elementary School in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, who took part in Smiling for Sure 2021 in 2011 as fifth graders, opened a video time capsule at a local alumni meeting on Sunday, January 21 to view messages for the future they created for their future selves.

Smiling for Sure 2021 is a program that used knowhow refined through Kid Witness News (KWN) to restore smiles and happiness to children who lived through the Great East Japan Earthquake by getting them to make videos. It started in September 2011. The children made videos on two themes: "What we want to communicate now," and "Messages to the future," recording, directing, and performing themselves. Some 4,000 people took part in 23 schools up to April 2017, and from 2019 members who participated in the program have been opening up the video time capsules to view their works.

Many of those who took part in this screening in Kesennuma City have left the local area to find work or go on to higher education. One graduate of the school who now works in Tokyo commented that "The videos were very interesting in comparing the past and the present; some people have achieved their dreams, some are doing well by following different paths." Another graduate of the school now working in Sendai City said that seeing the video inspired new thoughts: "I didn't achieve the dream I had then, but I'm blessed with the people I know now and am living happily and will continue to enjoy my life." The screening was shown on the NHK Tohoku Regional News for that day (broadcast for six prefectures in the Tohoku region) and also posted on NHK's Miyagi News Web.

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NHK Miyagi News Web