<figure id="attachment_408595" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408595" style="width: 1860px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="93612890"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/39d9039a5ae0d7568d625b5e0d02abe1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408595" class="wp-caption-text">Immediately after the earthquake, fire started to spread from many places in Kobe City.</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; 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 <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;All-out coverage of the</span> Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake,&#8221; which reported on the situation at the time of the disaster, 30 years to the day on January 17! <span class="strongInContent">Fear of the Huge Earthquake that Devastated Kobe&#8221;</span> and the February 7 extra issue of <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Emergency Extra Edition: The Great Earthquake in Kansai(*)&#8221;, which reported on the</span> situation at the time of the <span class="strongInContent">Great Hanshin-Awaji</span> Earthquake <span class="strongInContent">,</span><span class="strongInContent">which</span> will mark its 30th anniversary on January 17. <br>
(*The name &#8220;Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake&#8221; was decided by the Cabinet on February 14, 1995.)</p>
<p> 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).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Buildings collapsed like falling blocks.</span></h3>
<p> 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.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The roof of the hospital&#8217;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, &#8220;It hurts! More than half of the patients have not yet finished their treatment. There are far fewer nurses than there are patients.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" We tried to help them out of the rubble, but it was no use."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">A &#8220;colorless town&#8221; that looks as if it were covered in ashes</span></h3>
<p> The first floor of a wooden house in a residential area in front of the station collapsed, and only the second floor remained standing.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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,&#8221; one of them said.</span><span class="strongInContent"> 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&#8217;t.&#8221; He spoke in a voice that was emotionless.</span></p>
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<p> 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.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Firefighters are &quot;out of their depth&quot;."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Please take a picture of my son.</span></h3>
<p> At 1:00 a.m. on January 18, K. was at the scene of a fire in the same Nagata Ward.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> A firefighter who was working to extinguish the fire at the scene said, &#8220;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&#8217;re at our wits&#8217; end now.&#8221; The firefighters were discouraged. The number of fire trucks was overwhelmingly small compared to the fire&#8217;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.</span></p>
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<p> Higashinada Ward, Kobe City.Just before noon on the 17th, photographer N entered Higashinada Ward, Kobe City from Osaka on an off-road motorcycle.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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, &#8220;Please take a picture of my son. I asked her, &#8220;What? The old woman pointed to the room next door where she had just been rescued,</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> My only son is dead in that room. He was never in the books. &#8230;&#8230; Please, take a picture. Please take a picture.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> With a calm expression on his face, he repeated, &#8220;Please take a picture.</span></p>
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<p> 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, &#8220;death&#8221; and &#8220;life&#8221; were mixed together and existed in the same space.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The myth of safety has collapsed."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Safety Myths Shattered by &#8220;Unexpected&#8221; Earthquake</span></h3>
<p> 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 &#8220;trench-type&#8221; 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 &#8220;unexpected&#8221; catastrophe.</p>
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<p> 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.</p>
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<p> 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 &#8220;Japanese highways are safe,&#8221; but the myth of safety was destroyed.</p>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;hellscape of 1.17&quot; captured by this magazine&#39;s camera"></div>
<figure id="attachment_408748" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408748" style="width: 4689px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e7bb7085"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/46bb25bf362fffe259574e94eb391ab1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408748" class="wp-caption-text">Kobe on January 17 was a &#8220;city without color&#8221; as seen from the sky, says photographer</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408586" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408586" style="width: 1294px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5d93c491"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/7598b06513ad59eff9e7a51e5e265657.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408586" class="wp-caption-text"> Firefighters in the Nagata district of Kobe</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408587" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408587" style="width: 3656px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8cdb89c7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/1c199a7761cacc01f186dcdb362b6475.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408587" class="wp-caption-text"> A bus that encountered an earthquake on the Hanshin Expressway. The driver, two crew members, and three passengers survived.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_408588" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408588" style="width: 2257px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ff3ea982"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/0499d416ed46630c81e1a9b432f6c92c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408588" class="wp-caption-text"> Hanshin Expressway Collapse Raises Questions about Earthquake-Resistant Building Structures</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408590" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408590" style="width: 2257px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c5419136"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/4cf0566bdbe9cd40b465a6119a24f8ce.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408590" class="wp-caption-text"> A water pipe ruptured, cutting off water supply and affecting firefighting efforts.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408591" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408591" style="width: 1354px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="37b3fd27"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/900939036bb179a75ab37f3d671dcfa1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408591" class="wp-caption-text"> Cemetery on Awaji Island where the ground collapsed and tombstones were overturned</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408592" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408592" style="width: 2257px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2e9d76ff"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/6bb87b5be219b9616a9b73515afcb8ae.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408592" class="wp-caption-text"> A person being rescued from the Kobe City Nishimin Hospital, where 35 people were buried alive; work was difficult because the fifth floor had collapsed.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_408593" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408593" style="width: 2211px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e54f64b5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/c590ab2986f7f6e6e6ae8813df4da423.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408593" class="wp-caption-text"> A cultural house in Nishinomiya City collapsed.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408594" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408594" style="width: 1474px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="58926724"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/ca135643879c4e59ddad80a237b4b26b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408594" class="wp-caption-text"> This building in Chuo Ward, Kobe, which tilted heavily, collapsed from the ground up in an aftershock on the following day, March 18.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408616" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408616" style="width: 1117px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ce756927"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/459cf8a2b6522ff505cd89a7334f8a1a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408616" class="wp-caption-text"> One of the sites in the Kami-Oichi district of Nishinomiya City where the Sanyo Shinkansen overpass collapsed. Only the railroad tracks were lying in the air.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_408671" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408671" style="width: 3116px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="eb7ddd12"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/e140698ac52c37b26dcf05c93a7151fe.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408671" class="wp-caption-text"> Liquefaction&#8221; was also noticeable in reclaimed land in southern Hyogo Prefecture.</figcaption></figure>


 Naoki Kamidate (1st, 11th), Eiji Ikeda (2nd, 7th, 10th), Hiroshi Shibachi (3rd, 6th, 8th), Yutaka Asai (4th, 5th), Jun Mayumi (9th), Shinya Inui (12th)

 Playback '95] The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of January 17, 1995: How did this magazine report the worst disaster of its time 30 years ago? We look back through the reports of reporters and cameramen who were on the scene at the time.

 The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1)

Playback &#8217;95] The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Scenes of an &#8220;Unprecedented Catastrophe&#8221; as Seen by Our Reporters and Photographers on the Scene

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

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