23 Years from Hanshin Great Earthquake

Twenty-three years have passed from Hanshin Great Earthquake in 1995 on Wednesday. Huge M7.3 quake in the early morning took 6,434 of death, caused 3 of missing and tore 104,906 of houses down. Most people did not imagine such a great earthquake could occur in that region in Japan. The lesson they embraced was fatal disaster would not choose time and place. Nevertheless, Japanese government still insists on concentration of power in Tokyo, being reluctant to distribute function of the capital.

The people in Kobe and other cities around had memorial ceremony to send condolences to the victims. They are still looking for the remembrances of their loved one. 37 thousand offered prayer in the Meeting of 1/17 held in an amusement park in Kobe. “To be ready for any future events, we must not let our grievance of the earthquake fade away,” told Governor of Hyogo Keizo Ido in a memorial meeting, “and our great mission is to hand over and make use of the lesson and experience.”

So, what have we done for these 23 years? The greatest killer was a number of houses broken down. Wooden houses built before 1981, when strict anti-quake regulation for the houses was introduced, were mostly broken down, causing a great number of deaths. After Anti-quake Renovation Promotion Act was activated in December 1995, the houses in Japan became further resistant to earthquakes. The houses that needed reinforcement to fulfill anti-earthquake regulation reduced from 11.5 million in 2003 to 9 million in 2013. However, many people died under broken houses in Kumamoto Earthquake in 2015.

A seismologist in Japan described a big city with dense population as a large test site for great earthquake including an uncountable number of innocent people. Old and fragile wooden houses are broadly remaining in everywhere in Tokyo. They are surrounded by complicated network of electricity or gas pipeline underground. Once the capital was ignited, Tokyo will turn to be a sea of fire, before North Korea brings it with missile attacks. The government is indulged in scaring the people with releasing various estimation of catastrophe, not serious about making plan for redistribution of population in Japan.

One hope born in the devastation in Kobe was new movement of volunteer network f or helping reconstruction. 1.37 million of volunteers visited the devastated area for the first year. After Designated Non-profitable Activity Promotion Act was established in 1998, which would support the organizations for volunteers, it became a normal for volunteering to help suffered people in natural disaster. It is not the government, but conscience of the people that is reliable in unprecedented emergency.