Memorial Services Held 23 Years after 1995 Kobe Quake

Kobe, Jan. 17 (Jiji Press)--Memorial services for more than 6,000 victims of the January 1995 powerful earthquake in Kobe, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture, and nearby areas were held in the western Japan prefecture on Wednesday, which marked the 23rd anniversary of the disaster. With those born after the earthquake now accounting for more than 40 pct of Kobe's population, the mourners reiterated their resolve to pass on lessons from the disaster to future generations. At an event held by entities, including a nonprofit organization, at Higashi Yuenchi, a park in Kobe's Chuo Ward, about 25,000 people gathered and some 7,000 bamboo lanterns were lit to show a kanji character that has the meaning of "passing down." Participants, including bereaved relatives, offered silent prayers for the victims at 5:46 a.m. (8:46 p.m. Tuesday GMT), the exact time when the 7.3-magnitude quake struck 23 years ago. The temblor on Jan. 17, 1995, killed 6,434 people, left three missing and injured more than 43,000 others. Representing the relatives, Toshio Sai, a 76-year-old Kobe citizen, who lost his second son in the earthquake, said: "Telling my experience of the disaster is my driving force. It's my mission to work hard for my son." At a ceremony held by the Hyogo prefectural government in front of a monument in Chuo Ward, Hyogo Governor Toshizo Ido said, "Passing the experience and lessons we learned from the earthquake down to the next generation and utilizing them to create a safe society is a significant mission of our prefecture." Kenta Goto, 18, a third-year student at Maiko high school in Kobe, said, "Generations who have not experienced the earthquake must start telling the stories about the disaster to use the past lessons for the future." At the ceremony, participants laid flowers and prayed for the victims. Near the location, an event was held to back up the reconstruction of the Tohoku northeastern Japan region, which was stricken by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent huge tsunami on March 11, 2011, and of the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto, heavily damaged by a string of powerful temblors in April 2016. At the event site, hot meals using foods produced in Tohoku were served, and people from the three prefectures hit hardest by the 2011 disaster--Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima--and from Kumamoto sold locally made products and held tourism promotion activities. END