教育塔
教育塔は1936年に建てられ、当初は1934年の室戸台風で亡くなった学校の先生と生徒たちの記念碑であった。当時記録的な被害をもたらした室戸台風は、学校の始業日に直撃した。大阪の被害者990人の4分の1以上が生徒と教師であった。その時代の多くの校舎は強い台風に耐えられない木造の建物で、大阪の200以上の教育施設が台風の強風によって倒壊、またはひどく損壊したと伝えられている。
後に、建物が倒壊したときに生徒たちを保護し安全に導くために勇敢に命を投げ出した先生の話が広まった。教育塔の建設は一般からの寄付により賄われ、第二次世界大戦後も日本教職員組合によって管理されてきた。今日、教育塔は1995年に神戸を襲った阪神淡路大震災や、その後の災害犠牲者も慰霊の対象に含めている。
Education Tower (Kyōikutō)
Education Tower was built in 1936 and initially served as a memorial to schoolteachers and students who had died in a typhoon two years before. The storm, one of the most powerful ever recorded at the time, hit at the start of the school day, and more than a quarter of the 990 lives it claimed in Osaka were those of children and teachers. Many schools of that era were wooden structures that could not withstand powerful storms, and more than 200 of Osaka’s educational institutions were reportedly destroyed or badly damaged by the typhoon’s winds.
Stories later circulated of teachers who heroically risked their lives to lead students to safety or attempted to shelter them as the buildings collapsed. The construction of Education Tower was funded by public donations, and since the end of World War II, it has been managed by the Japan Teachers’ Union. Today, the memorial honors educators and students in general, including those killed in subsequent disasters, such as the Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit the city of Kobe in 1995.
