By HARUKA SUZUKI/ Staff Writer
January 17, 2022 at 14:40 JST
Lanterns are arranged to spell out “Never forget 1.17,” marking the 27th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, at Kobe East Park in the capital of Hyogo Prefecture on Jan. 17. (Satoru Ogawa)
KOBE--Residents started gathering before dawn at a local park to pray and renew their determination to never forget the tragedy that struck this port city and surrounding areas 27 years ago.
At 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, people across Kobe and the Kansai region observed a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, which claimed 6,434 lives.
At Kobe East Park in the city’s Chuo Ward, about 5,000 lanterns spelled out the words, “Never forget January 17.”
The number of lanterns was halved from the previous year because the park is undergoing renovations, and the memorial ceremony held in the park was also scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was last year.
Still, many arrived at the park by first light to grieve for the loss of their loved ones.
Sakuto Tashiro, 37, a singer and songwriter who lost his sister in the earthquake, delivered a commemorative speech on behalf of the bereaved families.
At the time, he was 10 while his sister was 17.
“I felt like it was the end of the world,” he said, recalling how the city became hardly recognizable.
He said the moment he learned of his sister’s death was the "hardest moment in my life, and I felt like I lost myself.”
According to the ceremony’s organizer, about 4,000 had visited the park by 7 a.m.
The earthquake struck at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995, the first to occur directly beneath a large city in post-war Japan.
The epicenter of the magnitude-7.3 quake that claimed 6,434 lives was at the northern part of Awajishima island in Hyogo Prefecture.
It was the first time on record that four cities in the prefecture, including Kobe, along with Awajishima island, had observed a magnitude-7 quake.
Three people remain unaccounted for and 43,792 people were injured in the disaster.
About 250,000 houses either partially or completely collapsed.
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