30th anniversary of Hanshin quake marked with desire to pass on lessons
Hyogo Prefecture marked the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on Friday with memories of what happened, a desire to pass on the lessons learned to future generations, and calls on the central government to use the Kansai region (where it is located) as the base of a new disaster relief agency.
The day began with a candlelight vigil in the city of Kobe and a moment of silence at 5:46 a.m., the time when the magnitude 7.3 quake struck on Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,343 people. At a memorial later in the morning attended by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, as well as central and local government officials including Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, people shared their earthquake experiences and the lessons learned from it.
“On this day, as we mark the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, I would like to express my deepest condolences once again to the more than 6,400 people who lost their lives,” the emperor said in his address.
“Thirty years ago today, many irreplaceable lives were lost in an instant, and the towns and lives that people had become accustomed to were lost. After the earthquake, I visited the disaster area with the empress. The sight of people affected by the disaster, despite the difficulties they faced, encouraging and helping one another, and trying their best to move forward, is still deeply etched in my mind,” he added.
The emperor also touched on disasters in Japan and overseas that have taken place since the Hanshin quake.
“When the Noto Peninsula earthquake struck last January, people from Hyogo Prefecture rushed to the area to provide support to the victims, drawing on the experience and lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. It is also significant that they have extended their support to victims of disasters overseas,” he said.
Mari Takeda, 66, a representative of the bereaved families, described what happened to her family when the quake hit. She was making a bento when the house started shaking. Her grandfather, who survived the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, told her to turn off the gas when the shaking began.
“As soon as I reached out and turned off the gas, I was buried underneath the rubble. I struggled in the darkness, and when I finally managed to get outside, I saw that my house had been destroyed. The roof had cracked, and my husband was holding our daughter in a daze,” she said.
Between Takeda’s parents, who had been living with her family at the time, only her mother survived.
“In the last 30 years, various natural disasters have occurred, and the earthquake that struck Noto last New Year is still fresh in our minds. I hope that people who have suffered tragedies similar to the Hanshin quake will find peace of mind,” she said.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako pay tribute to the victims of the earthquake at a memorial ceremony in Kobe on Friday.
| JIJI
Children born long after the earthquake also spoke about the lessons handed down to them at Friday’s ceremony.
“My mother lived about 7 kilometers from the quake’s epicenter. She told me that the earthquake destroyed everything she had and those of the people around her in a single night. An earthquake that can destroy everything in an instant is truly frightening,” said Honoka Tominaga, an 11-year-old elementary student in the city of Awaji.
By learning from the earthquake that happened 30 years ago, she added, the community has been able to build bonds while keeping in mind the powerful damage a quake can cause.
“I will continue to live each day carefully in the town where I was born,” Tominaga said.
Touching on the lessons that the region and the country learned about disaster response over the past three decades, Saito said Hyogo is prepared to host the new disaster relief agency that the central government plans to set up by April 2026.
“In preparation for a Nankai Trough earthquake, we’ll take a leadership role in establishing a disaster agency in Kansai, which will serve as a command post in the event of a disaster, in cooperation with the national government and related local governments,” he said during the memorial ceremony.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has yet to indicate whether the agency would be based in Tokyo or elsewhere, or whether it would have its headquarters in Tokyo and regional offices in other locations, including, perhaps, Hyogo Prefecture.