Yoko Nakajima (68), painter and teacher at an art studio in the city of Kobe, brought cheer back into the lives of children there who had lost their smiles after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 by having them paint pictures. When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, unable to sit by doing nothing, she packed art supplies into her car and headed for the devastated area of Northeast Japan. Because school gymnasiums were being used as morgues and other buildings were unusable, she held art classes outdoors, on school campuses. For years thereafter, she continued to travel to the devastated area using art as a tool in her effort to rebuild the lives of the children and bring them cheer. One of the schools she visited was Hashikami Elementary School in the city of Kesennuma. Momoka Goto and Kaede Iwabuchi, who were first graders at the time of the disaster, still have clear memories of that day. In 2018, they participated in a memorial event for the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Kobe. Seeing the children of Kobe attending the memorial and how the devastated city had bounced back, the two girls began to feel that they wanted to do something for Kesennuma, so they started storytelling activities that would talk to people about what had happened in 2011. 2021 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Many of the planned events had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in November 2020, Ms. Nakajima paid a visit to Kesennuma. She planned to pass on to Momoka and her classmates, now high school students, a figurative “baton” that embodied their hopes for the rebuilding of their town….