Fireworks Launched to Life Spirits in Noto; Elementary Students Collaborate to Partially Fund, Plan Event

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:32 JST, December 7, 2024

KANAZAWA — A fireworks display was held on Friday in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, to cheer up the victims of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and to wish for the areas’ recovery.

The event was organized in cooperation with the foundation that sponsors the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival, which is held in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, and known as one of the nation’s top three fireworks festivals.

Money raised by students from Nagaoka Municipal Toyoda Elementary School in Niigata Prefecture and Nanao Municipal Komaruyama Elementary School in Ishikawa Prefecture was used to cover some of the costs. Students from the two schools had been communicating with each other online.

On the day of the event, about 140 sixth-grade students from both schools gathered at the Noto Shokusai Market at the Michi-no-Eki roadside rest area in Nanao. They cheered as they watched the “Phoenix” and other fireworks, which were also set off in Nagaoka after the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake to wish for the recovery of that area.

“We thought about the colors for the fireworks ourselves. I hope that seeing them will make everyone feel like putting up a fight,” said an 11-year-old student at Komaruyama Elementary School.