SURVIVORS COMMEMORATE MAJOR 1995 KOBE EARTHQUAKE DESPITE FADING MEMORIES - KOBE JAPAN

SURVIVORS COMMEMORATE MAJOR 1995 KOBE EARTHQUAKE DESPITE FADING MEMORIES - KOBE JAPAN

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

KOBE

Survivors and residents on Saturday shared their grief and memories of the calamity wrought by the major earthquake that killed over 6,400 people in Kobe and the wider western Japan region in 1995, with concern now growing on the 31st anniversary that fading memories of the disaster are impacting preparedness for another.

There is hope that lessons learned by those who lived through the magnitude-7.3 quake can be passed on to younger people in the region that is at risk of a megaquake in the Nankai Trough, a seismically active area stretching southwest of the Pacific coast in central Japan.

At a park in Kobe, around 7,000 paper and bamboo lanterns were lit around 5:46 a.m., the time 31 years ago that the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck.

"I wasn't born back then, but I can feel the sorrow here even now," said university student Ayami Kawamura, 22. "Young people need to carry it forward from here."

Some, like 39-year-old Minami Ishida, marked the day accompanied by their children.

"I wanted my kids to understand that it occurred when people were asleep. We never know when another disaster may come, so I want to remember the quake," Ishida said.

Since the Kobe quake, Japan has been struck by numerous major earthquakes, the most notable being the magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami that in 2011 devastated the northwestern region of Tohoku and caused the Fukushima nuclear accident.

In the next few decades, there is a high probability that a quake measuring magnitude 8 or stronger could occur along the Nankai Trough, causing damaging tsunami. The government estimates that around 300,000 people could die in its worst-case scenario.

The government is also seeking to boost disaster preparedness in densely populated Tokyo and nearby areas where government functions and company headquarters are concentrated.

There is a high probability that a quake measuring around magnitude 7 could occur in or near the Japanese capital in the next 30 years. Up to 18,000 people could die in that scenario, according to a government estimate.

"I want you to know that there are people who still miss their loved ones and spend days looking for them," Etsuko Sato, 62, whose mother remains one of the three still missing after the 1995 quake, said at a commemorative event in Kobe.

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