Playback ’95] The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Scenes of an “Unprecedented Catastrophe” as Seen by Our Reporters and Photographers on the Scene

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will look back at the February 3, 1995 issue of “All-out coverage of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake,” which reported on the situation at the time of the disaster, 30 years to the day on January 17! Fear of the Huge Earthquake that Devastated Kobe” and the February 7 extra issue of “Emergency Extra Edition: The Great Earthquake in Kansai(*)”, which reported on the situation at the time of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake ,which will mark its 30th anniversary on January 17.
(*The name “Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake” was decided by the Cabinet on February 14, 1995.)

At 5:46 a.m. on January 17, 1995. At 5:46 a.m. on January 17, 1995, an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck a wide area of the Kinki region, centering on Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. The death toll was 6,434, 43,792 people were injured, and more than 100,000 houses were completely destroyed. The number of evacuated residents peaked at over 310,000, all of which were the worst postwar figures at the time. This article is a report of the spectacular scene as seen by a reporter and cameraman who arrived at the site immediately after the earthquake (figures in parentheses are quotes from the article at that time).

Buildings collapsed like falling blocks.

When M, who suffered a cut on his eyebrow at his home in Nishinomiya City at the time of the earthquake, went to a nearby hospital to receive treatment, he found that the hospital was overflowing with injured people, including those who were bleeding from the head and those who were walking with a limp.

The roof of the hospital’s entrance had also fallen completely off and shattered. The inside of the hospital was also a cruel sight, with several sheets of newspaper laid out on the floor. The tropical fish tank in the entrance lobby had been broken and the floor was soaked. As I went deeper into the building, I saw injured people everywhere. There was a man with a bandage wrapped around his arm and hanging from his neck, a man with a gauze and bandage covering a wound on his head, and a man lying in bed covered in bandages saying, “It hurts! More than half of the patients have not yet finished their treatment. There are far fewer nurses than there are patients.

A “colorless town” that looks as if it were covered in ashes

The first floor of a wooden house in a residential area in front of the station collapsed, and only the second floor remained standing.

Every 30 minutes or so, there would be an aftershock that seemed to push up from below, causing the surrounding buildings to rustle and rattle. The buildings around us rustled with each aftershock, making us nervous that the sloping apartment building might collapse.

In the parking lot of an apartment building, a group of people gathered around an oil can bonfire. They were all wearing what they could afford to wear and were still curled up on their backs, looking cold. There was a dead body there until a few minutes ago,” one of them said. One of them pointed to the side of the fire. The firefighters tried to save him from the rubble, but they were unable to do so. The firefighters tried to save him from the rubble, but they couldn’t.” He spoke in a voice that was emotionless.

Nagata Ward, Kobe City. The article reported the following scene as seen by a cameraman who was taking pictures of the disaster site from above by helicopter.

When I looked at the city of Kobe from the helicopter, there was no color as if the whole area was covered with volcanic ash. The smell of stale gas wafted up into the air above us. The view from the sky over Sannomiya was like a pile of falling blocks, with buildings toppling over or leaning. In Nagata Ward, fires were breaking out everywhere. From the sky above, we can see people evacuating to school yards. But the fire is still close to the schoolyard.

Please take a picture of my son.

At 1:00 a.m. on January 18, K. was at the scene of a fire in the same Nagata Ward.

A firefighter who was working to extinguish the fire at the scene said, “We have been fighting the fire since this morning. Just when we were about to extinguish the fire, the water stopped flowing and the fire started again. We’re at our wits’ end now.” The firefighters were discouraged. The number of fire trucks was overwhelmingly small compared to the fire’s intensity, and only a portion of the water was supplied. The area was pitch black, with only the burning fires illuminating the city. In the end, the entire area burned until there was nothing left to burn, leaving a 50-hectare burnt field.

Higashinada Ward, Kobe City.Just before noon on the 17th, photographer N entered Higashinada Ward, Kobe City from Osaka on an off-road motorcycle.

He found four mortar-and-timber frame Bunka Jutaku (cultural housing) buildings in which all the residents were buried alive. Many of the Bunka Houses were built immediately after the war, and they were helpless in the face of a massive earthquake. It took more than a dozen people to finally rescue an elderly man who lived in the far left room. As I was pointing my camera at the scene, an old woman whispered in my ear, “Please take a picture of my son. I asked her, “What? The old woman pointed to the room next door where she had just been rescued,

My only son is dead in that room. He was never in the books. …… Please, take a picture. Please take a picture.”

With a calm expression on his face, he repeated, “Please take a picture.

Only a dozen meters away from the scene, where rescue efforts were underway to save those buried alive, a convenience store was lined with people waiting in line, perhaps 100 meters or more long, for food. At the site of a major disaster, “death” and “life” were mixed together and existed in the same space.

Safety Myths Shattered by “Unexpected” Earthquake

The world was shocked by the cruel spectacle of a modern city with a population of 1.5 million being struck by an earthquake that destroyed buildings, highways, railroads, and other structures. Until then, alarm bells had been sounding against major earthquakes in the Kanto and Tokai regions, which are “trench-type” earthquakes caused by plate distortion. However, there had been little mention of earthquakes like the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, which occurred directly under the earth due to displacement of an active fault line. For people in the Kansai region, where earthquakes are rare, this was an “unexpected” catastrophe.

Many of those who died were crushed to death by collapsed buildings. At the time, there were still many wooden buildings older than the 1981 building code, and these collapsed due to the violent shaking. It is said that 90% of those who died may have died soon after the earthquake.

It was the fact that many of the houses had aged wooden tile roofs that caused the disaster. The lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake led to a reevaluation of the importance of earthquake resistance in buildings, which in turn led to renovation work at public facilities. In particular, highway and railroad piers were reinforced nationwide. When the Northridge earthquake hit the U.S. just one year ago, people said that “Japanese highways are safe,” but the myth of safety was destroyed.