Adults must watch for symptoms of stress.

Primary and junior high schools in the quake-hit Chuetsu district of Niigata Prefecture are to reopen this week. Although some schools are temporarily using other schools' classrooms, children living in shelters scattered in many places will be joyed to see their classmates once again.

Although children may appear happy, they are actually suffering from heavy stress caused by the violent shaking of the earth. Children, especially younger ones, cannot express what is on their minds, leading to a buildup of stress.

How can adults detect danger signals in small children? Teachers who cared for the mental health of children after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 visited the affected areas in Niigata and talked about the lessons they learned from the Kobe quake.

Shinji Ito and five others were sent by the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education as members of a team to assist people at schools affected by natural disasters. They visited shelters where the villagers of Yamakoshi lived. They spoke to children who appeared to be bored because they had nothing to do.

When the teachers spoke to the students, the children began to express their concerns.

Some who will attend a school in Nagaoka city complained that the school building was too clean. Others voiced concerns about carp and pets left behind in the evacuation. Many wanted to know when they could return to their village.

After the Kobe quake, teams of teachers were set up to assist people in affected areas. They have since been dispatched to places hit by earthquakes or other natural disasters.

Many children developed various kinds of symptoms resulting form mental trauma after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Pupils at kindergartens and elementary schools began to suck their fingers and cling to their parents-symptoms of infantilization. Some children could not enter a restroom because they were afraid of small places, while junior high school students lost their composure and grew lethargic. Such symptoms were the more marked the more violent the shaking of the ground they experienced.

The members of the assistance team advised: Always listen to children; try to make children talk about their anxieties, as small children hesitate to speak out because they are aware they are in an emergency situation; ease their minds by telling them that life will return to normal; include children in the work at shelters and give them confidence by praising them for having done good jobs; plays and sports work effectively in healing mental disorders.

After having received such advice, the teachers at Yamakoshi appeared to be somewhat relieved before they reopened their classrooms.

Mental trauma tends to stay on for months and years. Although nearly 10 years have passed since the Great Hanshin Earthquake, more than 1,300 primary school children and junior high school students still need mental care for disorders they suffer as a result of the quake.

Besides suffering from quake-related stress, they are also disturbed by being displaced from their homes they have long lived in and by their parents' loss of jobs because of the temblor.

Teachers in the affected areas in Niigata Prefecture have to work hand-in-hand with parents to take care of the children. But it would be too burdensome for them to double as homeroom teachers and mental-health caretakers.

After the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the central government paid for assigning teachers who were not homeroom teachers to look after the mental health of the children. The government should take a similar step for victims of the Niigata quake.

Ito, of the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education, encouraged teachers in the affected areas by saying, ``You should understand that children are cheered by your smile.''

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 8(IHT/Asahi: November 9,2004)