A Song for a New Fukushima School

Overview

The residents of Tomioka had to evacuate after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident. As people gradually return and rebuild, the elementary school asked composer Otomo Yoshihide to write a new school song. Students and alumni were invited to write the lyrics. But Otomo learned that the two groups had very different ideas about what made the place special. How could they create a piece that would offer a positive vision for a place that had undergone such drastic change?