Playback ’95] Picking Up the Bones from the Burnt Ruins…People in Kobe Begin to Rise from the Grief of the Great Hanshin Earthquake

The cry of a volunteer man I met at a shelter

Nankinmachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

While some people were in grief over the loss of their families, others were able to walk forward. Although people were sparsely populated, some stores had their shutters open.

They said, “We just opened it now. A clerk was grilling meat at a desk in front of the restaurant with a sign on it that read “Tonteki 300 yen. If we leave it alone, it will just rot. We got the meat in the day before the earthquake, but there was no water, so there was nothing we could do. Then our supplier in Nagoya sent us 60 liters of water. We also had electricity, so I thought we could cook it on a hot plate. Even as he speaks, the meat is cooking with a sizzling sound and a delicious smell wafts through the air. A line had already formed in front of the desk. I want two plates,” he said. Wait a minute, we have a reservation. The meat is selling briskly.

The office district of Sannomiya in Chuo-ku.

While many of the buildings had been destroyed, Sakura Bank (now Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) and Mitsubishi Bank (now Mitsubishi UFJ Bank) were still in business. A Mitsubishi employee, who was wearing a suit, said he had ritually traveled two hours by bicycle from Koshien to come to the bank. The reporter was moved by the man’s words.

He said, “Since the evening of the 16th, we have been running the lights and computers on our own power generation, but we can’t turn on the heaters, so it’s cold.

His words, “After all, it is a public service.

Seitoku Elementary School, Nada Ward, Tokyo

I hardly slept at all, ” said one of the volunteers. On the day of the disaster, there was almost nothing, but relief supplies began arriving from all over the country, and he said he was very busy. One young volunteer had just arrived with a large backpack. Just as the reporter was leaving the elementary school, he was stopped and told, “Wait a minute.

He said, “I want you to tell everyone right away. We are doing the best we can, but there are bodies of people who have no relatives left behind. If he had any relatives, they would make a death certificate and cremate him. But if they don’t know anyone, there’s nothing they can do. In a trembling voice, he wiped his tears with a blackened hand towel.

There are people who work incredibly hard, in dirty clothes, exhausted, and with little rest. At one junior high school, a student carried a bucket of pool water to flush the toilet. There was a girl who said with a cheerful face, “You know, the electricity doesn’t work.

It is true that there are still many hardships and inconveniences at the disaster site, but the hope for recovery can be seen in the bright faces of the children who will carry the future.

Little by little, people’s faces seemed to have been restored.